Comparing a New Non-Invasive Vineyard Yield Estimation Approach Based on Image Analysis with Manual Sample-Based Methods

Manual vineyard yield estimation approaches are easy to use and can provide relevant information at early stages of plant development. However, such methods are subject to spatial and temporal variability as they are sample-based and dependent on historical data. The present work aims at comparing the accuracy of a new non-invasive and multicultivar, image-based yield estimation approach with a manual method. Non-disturbed grapevine images were collected from six cultivars, at three vineyard plots in Portugal, at the very beginning of veraison, in a total of 213 images. A stepwise regression model was used to select the most appropriate set of variables to predict the yield. A combination of derived variables was obtained that included visible bunch area, estimated total bunch area, perimeter, visible berry number and bunch compactness. The model achieved an R-2 = 0.86 on the validation set. The image-based yield estimates outperformed manual ones on five out of six cultivar data sets, with most estimates achieving absolute errors below 10%. Higher errors were observed on vines with denser canopies. The studied approach has the potential to be fully automated and used across whole vineyards while being able to surpass most bunch occlusions by leaves.