Controlled comparison of machine vision algorithms for Rumex and Urtica detection in grassland

•Automated robotic weeding of grassland will improve the productivity of dairy and sheep farms while helping to conserve their environments.•Previous studies have reported results of machine vision methods to separate grass from grassland weeds but each use their own datasets and report only performance of their own algorithm, making it impossible to compare them.•A definitive, large-scale independent study is presented of all major known grassland weed detection methods evaluated on a new standardised data set under a wider range of environment conditions.•This allows for a fair, unbiased, independent and statistically significant comparison of these and future methods for the first time.

Automated robotic weeding of grassland will improve the productivity of dairy and sheep farms while helping to conserve their environments. Previous studies have reported results of machine vision methods to separate grass from grassland weeds but each use their own datasets and report only performance of their own algorithm, making it impossible to compare them. A definitive, large-scale independent study is presented of all major known grassland weed detection methods evaluated on a new standardised data set under a wider range of environment conditions. This allows for a fair, unbiased, independent and statistically significant comparison of these and future methods for the first time. We test features including linear binary patterns, BRISK, Fourier and Watershed; and classifiers including support vector machines, linear discriminants, nearest neighbour, and meta-classifier combinations. The most accurate method is found to use linear binary patterns together with a support vector machine.1