A Robust Tomato Counting Framework for Greenhouse Inspection Robots Using YOLOv8 and Inter-Frame Prediction

Accurate tomato yield estimation and ripeness monitoring are critical for optimizing greenhouse management. While manual counting remains labor-intensive and error-prone, this study introduces a novel vision-based framework for automated tomato counting in standardized greenhouse environments. The p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wanli Zheng, Guanglin Dai, Miao Hu, Pengbo Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Agronomy
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/15/5/1135
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Summary:Accurate tomato yield estimation and ripeness monitoring are critical for optimizing greenhouse management. While manual counting remains labor-intensive and error-prone, this study introduces a novel vision-based framework for automated tomato counting in standardized greenhouse environments. The proposed method integrates YOLOv8-based detection, depth filtering, and an inter-frame prediction algorithm to address key challenges such as background interference, occlusion, and double-counting. Our approach achieves 97.09% accuracy in tomato cluster detection, with mature and immature single fruit recognition accuracies of 92.03% and 91.79%, respectively. The multi-target tracking algorithm demonstrates a MOTA (Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy) of 0.954, outperforming conventional methods like YOLOv8 + DeepSORT. By fusing odometry data from an inspection robot, this lightweight solution enables real-time yield estimation and maturity classification, offering practical value for precision agriculture.
ISSN:2073-4395