My Expertise
Digital viticulture, horticultural sensing, image processing, autonomous systems, 3D mapping, unmanned ground vehicles, robotics
Fields of Research (FoR)
Horticultural crop growth and development, Oenology and viticulture, Automation engineering, Autonomous vehicle systems, Field robotics, Autonomous agents and multiagent systems, Intelligent robotics, Computer vision, Image processingSEO tags
Biography
Mark is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Mechatronics discipline within the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. Please see his research group's page at www.robotics.unsw.edu.au/srv for more details of the work his team has done. His research interests were focussed around digital agriculture and digital viticulture and extend to the following topics, however he is no longer working as a full time academic:
- Yield estimation...view more
Publications
by Dr Mark Whitty
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3860-9458
Related Links
Apple Flower Imaging
Working with HIA, SwarmFarm and ADAMA to developed technology for sensing the stage of apple flower maturity to then target thinning sprays.
Autonomous Ground Vehicles
Fleets of custom built ground vehicles are developed with wide ranging capabilities for their networked operation to carry out surveilence tasks.Videos
Journal paper on DeepPhenology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106123
Yield estimation for wine-grapes is a challenging problem as there can be large variability from year to year in yield components, weather conditions and management actions. This webinar will present the results from a three-year Wine Australia funded study into block-level yield estimation, whereby several image processing based methods have been designed, implemented and evaluated in Australian vineyard blocks. A system of shoot counting in combination with mobile phone images of inflorescences and bunches was shown to outperform best-practice manual yield estimation at all points during the season. This opens the possibility of using simple tools across industry to reduce the tedium of performing forecasts, improve forecasting accuracy and implement management actions to optimise yield.
Accurate yield estimation is a critical aspect of both viticulture and winemaking as it affects the entire supply chain. Industry standard practice in yield estimation can take substantial resources yet still provide inaccurate results. In order to automate yield estimation methods we developed a method for generating high-resolution relative maps of visible vine parameters such as shoot or bunch density. The method is based on low-cost cameras (i.e. GoPros) as sensors that can be mounted on vehicles that are already traveling through the vineyard. Camera data is processed to give a geo-referenced map without requiring an expensive GPS unit. The relative yield maps can be generated from when the first leaves separate this means that the maps can be used to adjust management practices such as trimming, thinning or mulching during the season. The processed images can also be used to map non-bearing sections of canopy and to identify missing vines, which has the potential to help in the detection of trunk diseases such as Eutypa. These methods along with recent work on detecting water stress and sensing bunch maturity in vineyards will be presented along with discussion of some of the challenges facing viticulturists.
SolSmart, UNSW's entry in the Telstra University Challenge
Pepper, UNSW's winning entry at IGVC2015
UNSW's Mohammad Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) team practising in Abu Dhabi
UNSW's Mohammad Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge Team Introduction
Foodbytes presentation 2016
DeepPhenology:Estimation of apple flower phenology distributions based on deep learning
Improved yield estimation for the Australian wine industry
Practical and Precise Perception for Vineyards
Telstra University Challenge finalist – Sol SunSmart
IGVC 2015 UNSW Advanced Course Chase [Final]
University Of New South Wales - Saving Robert, Australia
University of New South Wales - Saving Robert
Precision Crop Monitoring using Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs)
Smart Robotic Viticulture - 3D Bunch at FoodBytes