An Edge Computing-Based Solution for Real-Time Leaf Disease Classification using Thermal Imaging

TL;DR

This letter explores the potential of edge computing for real-time classification of leaf diseases using thermal imaging and evaluates DL models, including InceptionV3, MobileNetV1, MobileNetV2, and VGG-16, on resource-constrained devices like the Raspberry Pi 4B.

Abstract

Deep learning (DL) technologies can transform agriculture by improving crop health monitoring and management, thus improving food safety. In this paper, we explore the potential of edge computing for real-time classification of leaf diseases using thermal imaging. We present a thermal image dataset for plant disease classification and evaluate deep learning models, including InceptionV3, MobileNetV1, MobileNetV2, and VGG-16, on resource-constrained devices like the Raspberry Pi 4B. Using pruning and quantization-aware training, these models achieve inference times up to 1.48x faster on Edge TPU Max for VGG16, and up to 2.13x faster with precision reduction on Intel NCS2 for MobileNetV1, compared to high-end GPUs like the RTX 3090, while maintaining state-of-the-art accuracy.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Types of plant stress
• Figure 2: General workflow for deploying models to the Raspberry Pi at the edge.
• Figure 3: The pipeline of the proposed hardware based solution for leaf disease classification.
• Figure 4: Image samples from the self collected dataset.
• Figure 5: Model Size vs. Accuracy for Different Platforms