Tomato leaf disease detection using Taguchi-based Pareto optimized lightweight CNN

Abstract

The prospect of food security becoming a global danger by 2050 due to the exponential growth of the world population. An increase in production is indispensable to satisfy the escalating demand for food. Considering the scarcity of arable land, safeguarding crops against disease is the best alternative to maximize agricultural output. The conventional method of visually detecting agricultural diseases by skilled farmers is time-consuming and vulnerable to inaccuracies. Technology-driven agriculture is an integral strategy for effectively addressing this matter. However, orthodox lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) models for early crop disease detection require fine-tuning to enhance the precision and robustness of the models. Discovering the optimal combination of several hyperparameters might be an exhaustive process. Most researchers use trial and error to set hyperparameters in deep learning (DL) networks. This study introduces a new systematic approach for developing a less sensitive CNN for crop leaf disease detection by hyperparameter tuning in DL networks. Hyperparameter tuning using a Taguchi-based orthogonal array (OA) emphasizes the S/N ratio as a performance metric primarily dependent on the model’s accuracy. The multi-objective Pareto optimization technique accomplished the selection of a robust model. The experimental results demonstrated that the suggested approach achieved a high level of accuracy of 99.846% for tomato leaf disease detection. This approach can generate a set of optimal CNN models’ configurations to classify leaf disease with limited resources accurately.