Estimación de producción en cítricos usando técnicas de aprendizaje automático

Estimar con exactitud la cosecha de un cultivo representa una información muy relevante para agricultores y cooperativas/agentes encargados de gestionar y vender el producto. De esta estimación depende la organización y logística necesarias para la recolección, planificación del almacenaje, stock y abastecimiento de los mercados. Actualmente la estimación de la cosecha se realiza en campo con personal experimentado realizando una inspección visual y en base a datos históricos, proceso que tiene riesgo de presentar errores humanos. Las redes neuronales convolucionales (CNN) basadas en el Deep Learning (DL), constituyen una herramienta prometedora para hacer estimaciones de rendimiento basadas en el reconocimiento y conteo de frutos. El objetivo del este trabajo ha sido crear un modelo basado en CNNs a partir de una arquitectura de red existente y entrenada para contar el número de frutos y estimar la producción de la parcela. Una vez entrenados los modelos, se testaron sobre imágenes tomadas con un dron multirrotor sobre 20 árboles seleccionados al azar de una parcela de cítricos Citrus sinensis (L.) cv. Navelina. Durante las tres campañas anuales en las que se han realizado las estimaciones, el error medio absoluto obtenido con DL fue entre 4-6% y el del técnico especialista en el aforo entorno al 8-11% frente a la producción real de la parcela. Estos resultados vislumbran un gran potencial de la metodología para la predicción del rendimiento de árboles de cítricos

X Congreso Ibérico de Agroingeniería = X Congresso Ibérico de Agroengenharia : Libro de actas = Livro de atas

In 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a report on the challenges that Agriculture is facing and will face into the 21st century, which can be summarized in one question: will we be able to sustainably and effectively feed everyone by 2050 and beyond, while meeting the additional demand for agricultural commodities due to non- food uses? Agricultural engineers can contribute in this process by releasing the biological and technical constraints on crop and animal productivity, reducing the contribution of the agricultural sector to environmental degradation, and enabling agricultural practices to adapt to environmental changes. To achieve optimal results for agribusiness and the society, the expertise of agricultural engineers must be integrated with expertise from other sciences: breakthrough technologies are needed for agricultural enterprises to meet the increasing list of standards and norms in the areas of energy, animal welfare, product quality, water, and volatile emissions. Recognition of trends in society and networking and participation in debates have thus become important activities for agricultural engineers. The Iberian Agroengineering Congress series brings together Spanish and Portuguese engineers, researchers, educators and practitioners to present and discuss innovations, trends, and solutions to the aforementioned challenges in the interdisciplinary field of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. This biennial congress, jointly organized by the Spanish Society of Agroengineering and the Specialized Section of Rural Engineering of the Sociedade de Ciências Agrárias de Portugal, has proven to be an excellent opportunity to network and discuss future developments. In its 10th edition, the Congress has been held from 3-6 September in Huesca (Spain), at the Escuela Politécnica Superior, located on the Huesca Campus of the University of Zaragoza. The topics of the Congress have included the main areas of Agricultural Engineering: mechanization; soils and water; animal production technology and aquaculture; rural constructions; energy; information technologies and process control; projects, environment, and territory; postharvest technology; and educational innovation in agroengineering. The Congress has received 123 participants, who have submitted 144 papers, 86 oral communications and 58 poster. 22 universities, 4 research centers and 8 companies/professional associations have been represented. The quality of the papers presented to the congress is endorsed not only by the long trajectory of the Iberian Agroengineering Congress, but also by the edition of a Special Issue of Agronomy journal (ISSN 2073-4395) entitled “Selected Papers form 10th Iberian Agroengineering Congress”