Development of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles based decision-making system for smart fruit growing

Aim of project: within the project, the applied research will be carried out to develop and implement the autonomous apple, pear and sweet cherry orchard management system. This system will be autonomous decision-making smart fruit growing solution, with the following functions: 1) automatic and autonomous orchard monitoring by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); 2) automatic flowering and fruiting assessment; 3) automatic apple scab monitoring for timely decision-making on disease control measures according to precision horticulture principles.

Main objectives:

1) to develop artificial intelligence solutions able to identify and quantify fruit tree flowers and fruits using photographs;

2) to develop mathematical models for automatic UAV orientation among fruit tree canopy and photography obtaining|;

3) develop a prototype of an autonomous UAV-based decision-making system for smart fruit growing, which improves yield estimation and scab monitoring considering precision horticulture principles.

Additional objective: artificial intelligence solution capable of recognising apple scab at advanced development stages was already developed within project No. lzp2019/1-0094, under the guidance of the Institute of Engineering (InE) and Institute of Horticulture (LatHort) and will be integrated into the orchard management system at the first stage of prototype implementation until new modules are developed.