Stereo vision blossom mapping for automated thinning in peach

Currently, manual labor is used in the thinning of fruit for ensuring a high yield of marketable fruits. This paper presents ongoing research using a correlation-based stereo vision approach to automated thinning of peach blossoms on perpendicular `V´ architecture trees. To this end a calibrated camera system has been designed using three synchronized ten Mpixel cameras and flash illumination. A total station was used to establish blossom ground-truth location. A correlation-based stereo algorithm was developed that is suitable for parallel processing, using multiple camera pairs for validating the correspondence in 3D space, and does not require rectification of the images. The results showed accuracy of less than half of a blossom width (~ 1cm), provided a good starting point for further development of the algorithm and validated the approach for automated selective blossom thinning application.