AI-driven time series analysis for predicting strawberry weekly yields integrating fruit monitoring and weather data for optimized harvest planning

Strawberries, as an indeterminate crop, produce fruit multiple times per season, making fruit monitoring and wave-specific yield prediction essential for optimizing harvest planning. This study developed an AI-driven approach to predict next week’s yield using real-time plant image data collected by a machine vision system and environmental data. YOLOv8n was employed to count flowers, immature fruit, and mature fruit per plant, with manual counts used to evaluate the system’s accuracy. The YOLOv8n-based data, combined with weather features, were used to train several AI models for yield prediction. These models included traditional time series machine learning approaches, such as Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) with time lag features, Vector Autoregression (VAR), Gradient Boosting Machines (GBM), Random Forest, and deep learning time-series models, including Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCN). Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) was employed to identify the most relevant features. The performance of these models was evaluated across three strawberry varieties: Sensation, Brilliance, and Medallion. Results showed that MLR outperformed other models for Sensation and Brilliance, with R² values of 0.633 and 0.908, respectively. For Medallion, GBM achieved the best performance with an R² score of 0.848. LSTM, which outperformed TCN, achieved R² scores of 0.522 (Sensation), 0.839 (Brilliance), and 0.740 (Medallion). This AI-driven system automates yield forecasting, reducing labor costs and enabling more efficient harvest planning. The study highlights the potential of combining machine vision and predictive analytics for precise, scalable yield prediction, offering valuable insights for proactive farm management and supply chain optimization.