Localization of ripe tomato bunch using deep neural networks and class activation mapping

In this study, we propose a ripe tomato bunch localization method based on convolutional neural networks, to be applied in robotic harvesting systems. Tomato images were obtained from a smart greenhouse at the Rural Development Administration (RDA). The sample images for training were extracted based on tomato maturity and resized to 128 × 128 pixels for use in the classification model. The model was constructed based on four-layer convolutional neural networks, and the classes were determined based on stage of maturity, using a Softmax classifier. The localization of the ripe tomato bunch region was indicated on a class activation map. The class activation map could show the approximate location of the tomato bunch but tends to present a local part or a large part of the ripe tomato bunch region, which could lead to poor performance. Therefore, we suggest a recursive method to improve the performance of the model. The classification results indicated that the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score were 0.98, 0.87, 0.98, and 0.92, respectively. The localization performance was 0.52, estimated by the Intersection over Union (IoU), and through input recursion, the IoU was improved by 13%. Based on the results, the proposed localization of the ripe tomato bunch area can be incorporated in robotic harvesting systems to establish the optimal harvesting paths.