Identification of Plant Nutrient Deficiencies Using Convolutional Neural Networks

A novel image analysis method for identifying nutrient deficiencies in plant based on its leaf is proposed. First, the proposed method divides an input leaf image into small blocks. Second, each block of leaf pixels is fed to a set of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Each CNN is specifically trained for a nutrient deficiency and is utilized to decide if a block is presenting any symptom of the corresponding nutrient deficiency. Next, the responses from all CNNs are integrated to produce a single response for the block using a winner-take-all strategy. Finally, the responses from all blocks are integrated into one using a multi-layer perceptron to produce a final response for the whole leaf. Validation of the proposed method was performed on a set of black gram (Vigna mungo) plants grown under nutrient-controlled environments. Five types of deficiencies, i.e., Ca, Fe, K, Mg and N deficiencies, and a group of plants with complete nutrients were studied. A dataset consisting of 3,000 leaf images was collected and used for experimentation. Experimental results indicate the superiority of the proposed method over trained humans in nutrient deficiency identification.