Ortho-Fuse: Orthomosaic Generation for Sparse High-Resolution Crop Health Datasets Through Intermediate Optical Flow Estimation

Abstract

AI-driven crop health mapping systems offer substantial advantages over conventional monitoring approaches through accelerated data acquisition and cost reduction. However, widespread farmer adoption remains constrained by technical limitations in orthomosaic generation from sparse aerial imagery datasets. Traditional photogrammetric reconstruction requires 70-80% inter-image overlap to establish sufficient feature correspondences for accurate geometric registration. AI-driven systems operating under resource-constrained conditions cannot consistently achieve these overlap thresholds, resulting in degraded reconstruction quality that undermines user confidence in autonomous monitoring technologies. In this paper, we present Ortho-Fuse, an optical flow-based framework that enables the generation of a reliable orthomosaic with reduced overlap requirements. Our approach employs intermediate flow estimation to synthesize transitional imagery between consecutive aerial frames, artificially augmenting feature correspondences for improved geometric reconstruction. Experimental validation demonstrates a 20% reduction in minimum overlap requirements. We further analyze adoption barriers in precision agriculture to identify pathways for enhanced integration of AI-driven monitoring systems. The code and dataset are available at https://rugvedkatole.github.io/OrthoFUSE/