Fast and Accurate Detection of Banana Fruits in Complex Background Orchards

The detection of banana fruits is an important part of intelligent management in the banana plantation. To detect the banana fruit quickly and accurately in the complex orchard environment, this article proposes a method based on the latest deep learning algorithm to detect the banana fruit. Using a monocular camera, we applied the YOLOv4 neural network algorithm to extract the deep features of banana fruits, realizing accurate detection of different banana sizes. The detection algorithm achieved a 99.29% detection rate, the average execution time was 0.171s, the shortest execution time was 0.135s, and the AP was 0.9995. Moreover, the detection results were discussed with the YOLOv3 algorithm and the machine learning algorithm. Compared with the machine learning algorithm, deep learning algorithm was superior to both detection accuracy and detection time. YOLOv4 had higher detection confidence and higher detection rate than YOLOv3. The results show that the proposed method could realize the fast detection of different varieties and different maturity in banana plantations, under different illumination and occlusion conditions, and provide information for banana picking, maturity and yield estimation.