A seed-epidermis-feature-recognition-based lightweight peanut seed selection method for embedded systems

• Published in: Measurement and control (London) Vol. 58; no. 8; pp. 1039 - 1051
• Main Authors: Li, Dehao, Huang, Jinlong, Li, Xincheng, Yang, Zhaolei, An, Xueke, Xu, Pengfei, Yun, Yuliang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2025; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Accuracy; Deep learning; Embedded systems; Epidermis; Feature extraction; Feature recognition; Germination; Machine learning; Machine vision; Peanuts; Planting; Seeds; deep learning; transfer learning; embedded deployment; Peanut seed selection
• DOI: 10.1177/00202940241293319
• ISSN: 0020-2940

High-quality seeds improve the germination rate. Therefore, seed selection before sowing peanuts is crucial. Current peanut seed selection methods include color sorters and sieving machines, which are efficient but lack accuracy due to their reliance on a single indicator. Manual selection is inefficient and subject to subjective influences. Although machine vision and deep learning have performed well in crops such as corn and pepper, most existing research is based on PC or MATLAB platforms, which are not portable and are prone to interference, making them unsuitable for field applications. This study developed a lightweight model for recognizing peanut seed epidermal features. The model was based on deep learning and model quantization techniques. The transfer learning method was used to use four pre-trained models, EfficientNet_b0, EfficientNetv2-b0, MobileNet_v2_35_224, and NasNet_Mobile, as feature extraction layers, the input layer was added before the feature extraction layer, and the dropout and dense layers were added after the feature extraction layer to construct a classifier. The peanut seed selection network(PSSNet) models were constructed and named PSSNet-E, PSSNet-E2, PSSNet-M, and PSSNet-N, respectively, and trained on the Huayu 22 peanut seed dataset constructed in this study. The constructed models were compressed using model quantization technology, and four quantized models were obtained, namely PSSNet-Ef, PSSNet-E2f, PSSNet-Mf, and PSSNet-Nf. Finally, PSSNet-Mf, which had the best model evaluation, was selected as the peanut selection model for this study and deployed on a prototype for testing. Compared with the unquantized model, the size of the quantized model was reduced by two-thirds and the running speed was increased by 37%. A total of 400 Huayu 22 peanut seeds were selected as test samples, and 5 selection tests were conducted.The results showed that the average accuracy was 95.3%, which met the requirements of peanut selection at the production site.