Interoperability Analysis of Tomato Fruit Detection Models for Images Taken at Different Facilities, Cultivation Methods, and Times of the Day

Abstract

This study investigated the interoperability of a tomato fruit detection model trained using nighttime images from two greenhouses. The goal was to evaluate the performance of the models in different environmets, including different facilities, cultivation methods, and imaging times. An innovative imaging approach is introduced to eliminate the background, highlight the target plants, and test the adaptability of the model under diverse conditions. The results demonstrate that the tomato fruit detection accuracy improves when the domain of the training dataset contains the test environment. The quantitative results showed high interoperability, achieving an average accuracy (AP50) of 0.973 in the same greenhouse and a stable performance of 0.962 in another greenhouse. The imaging approach controlled the lighting conditions, effectively eliminating the domain-shift problem. However, training on a dataset with low diversity or inferring plant appearance images but not on the training dataset decreased the average accuracy to approximately 0.80, revealing the need for new approaches to overcome fruit occlusion. Importantly, these findings have practical implications for the application of automated tomato fruit set monitoring systems in greenhouses to enhance agricultural efficiency and productivity.