Modelling agronomic images for weed detection and comparison of crop/weed discrimination algorithm performance

A new method for weed detection based on modelling agronomic images taken from a virtual camera placed in a virtual field is proposed. The aim was to measure and compare the effectiveness of the developed algorithms. Two sets of images with and without perspective effects were simulated. For images with no perspective, based on Gabor filtering and on the Hough transform, the performance of two crop/inter-row weed discrimination algorithms were tested and compared. The method based on the Hough transform is, in any case, better than the one based on Gabor filtering. For images with perspective effects only, an algorithm based on the Hough transform was tested and an extension to real images is discussed. These tests were done by a comparison between the weed infestation rate detected by these algorithms and the true one. This evaluation was completed with a crop/weed pixel classification and it demonstrated that the algorithm based on a Hough transform gave the best results (up to 90%).