Review of image processing and artificial intelligence methodologies for apple leaf disease diagnosis

Abstract

Apple leaf disease (ALD) potentially affects the apple tree's health by reducing fruit yield and its capability to grow healthy. The prime purpose of the proposed study is to review and assess the strengths and weaknesses associated with the frequently exercised methods of ALD diagnosis using image processing and artificial intelligence (AI). Although these are widely adopted in recent studies, the core notion is to find the pros and cons associated with the practical viability. A desk research methodology is undertaken to carry out proposed review work where a database of recent scientific manuscripts is collected and studied very closely. The existing approaches are reviewed concerning identified problems, adopted solutions, advantages, and limitations. Finally, the paper contributes towards offering insight into potential research gap which will guide the upcoming researchers to make wise decisions for planning their models. The results acquired from this review work show that generalized challenges of ALD are not addressed, less emphasis on illumination variability, reduced target to minimize complexity, lesser evidence towards real-time processing, no evidence towards interpretability, limitation of available dataset, and tradeoff-between image processing and AI.