The precise estimation of passion fruit yield is crucial for efficient orchard management, but it poses challenges such as occlusion, light variations, and camera shake, which can lead to problems such as missed detection, error detection, and double counting of small fruits. In this study, we propose a robust computer vision algorithm named YOLOv8n + OC-SORT + CRCM (Central Region Counting Method) to accomplish three tasks: detection, tracking, and yield estimation of passion fruits. Firstly, we compare the passion fruit detection results using various YOLO series detection algorithms and choose YOLOv8n for detector. Then, OC-SORT algorithm is chosen as the tracker due to its effectiveness in addressing issues like occlusion, vertical shaking, and uneven speeds. Finally, we design CRCM counting algorithm for fruit counting for addressing challenges in estimating passion fruit yield. To validate the effectiveness of these methods, a real-world passion fruit video dataset including 24 videos for each with a 1-minute length was established. In the detection results on the test set, YOLOv8n detector achieved the best results with a mAP@0.5 (mean Average Precision) of 86.3 % and a model size of only 6.2 MB among YOLOv5n, YOLOv7 and YOLOv8n three detectors. Furthermore, the HOTA (higher order tracking accuracy) of OC-SORT tracker was 67.10 %, surpassing three mainstream trackers named BoT-SORT, Byte Track, and Strong SORT by 2.98 %, 4.71 %, and 8.82 %, respectively. In the fruit yield estimation, CRCM demonstrated an average counting accuracy of 87.0 %, surpassing ID number and Single Line Method (SLM) methods by 49.8 % and 10.5 %, respectively. In conclusion, the YOLOv8n + OC-SORT + CRCM algorithm effectively addresses issues of misidentification, missed detections of small fruits, and repeated counts, achieving stable, real-time, and accurate estimation of passion fruit yield.
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