An Automatic Tomato Growth Analysis System Using YOLO Transfer Learning

In recent years, Japan’s agricultural industry has faced a number of challenges, including a decline in production due to a decrease in farmland area, a shortage of labor due to a decrease in the number of producers, and an aging population. Therefore, in recent years, smart agriculture using robots and IoT has been studied. A caliper is often used to analyze the growth of tomatoes in a plant factory, but this method may damage the stems and is also hard on the measurer. We developed a system that detects them through image analysis and measures the thickness of stems and the length between flower clusters and growing points. The camera device developed in this study costs about USD 150 and once installed, it does not need to be moved unless it malfunctions. The camera device reduces the effort required to analyze crop growth by about 80%.