Estimación de áreas de cultivo mediante Deep Learning y programación convencional

Artificial Intelligence has enabled the implementation of more accurate and efficient solutions to problems in various areas. In the agricultural sector, one of the main needs is to know at all times the extent of land occupied or not by crops in order to improve production and profitability. The traditional methods of calculation demand the collection of data manually and in person in the field, causing high labor costs, execution times, and inaccuracy in the results. The present work proposes a new method based on Deep Learning techniques complemented with conventional programming for the determination of the area of populated and unpopulated crop areas. We have considered as a case study one of the most recognized companies in the planting and harvesting of sugar cane in Ecuador. The strategy combines a Generative Adversarial Neural Network (GAN) that is trained on a dataset of aerial photographs of natural and urban landscapes to improve image resolution; a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) trained on a dataset of aerial photographs of sugar cane plots to distinguish populated or unpopulated crop areas; and a standard image processing module for the calculation of areas in a percentage manner. The experiments performed demonstrate a significant improvement in the quality of the aerial photographs as well as a remarkable differentiation between populated and unpopulated crop areas, consequently, a more accurate result of cultivated and uncultivated areas. The proposed method can be extended to the detection of possible pests, areas of weed vegetation, dynamic crop development, and both qualitative and quantitative quality control.