A comprehensive review on soil classification using deep learning and computer vision techniques

Soil classification is one of the major affairs and emanating topics in a large number of countries. The population of the world is rising at a majorly rapid pace and along with the increase in population, the demand for food surges actively. Typical techniques employed by the farmers are not adequate enough to fulfill the increasing requirements and therefore they have to hinder the cultivating soil. For proper crop yield, farmers should be aware of the correct soil type for a particular crop, which affects the increased demand for food. There are various laboratory and field methods to classify soil, but these have limitations like time and labor-consuming. There is a requirement of computer-based soil classification techniques which will help farmers in the field and won’t take a lot of time. This paper talks about different computer-based soil classification practices divided into two streams. First is image processing and computer vision-based soil classification approaches which include the conventional image processing algorithms and methods to classify soil using different features like texture, color, and particle size. Second is deep learning and machine learning-based soil classification approaches, such as CNN, which yields state-of-the-art results. Deep learning applications mostly diminish the dependency on spatial-form designs and preprocessing techniques by facilitating the end-to-end process. This paper also presents some databases created by the researchers according to the objective of the study. Databases are created under different environmental and illumination conditions, using different appliances such as digital cameras, digital camcorder, and a smartphone camera. Also, evaluation metrics are briefly discussed to layout some graded measures for differentiation. This review serves as a brief guide to new researchers in the field of soil classification, it provides fundamental understanding and general knowledge of the modern state-of-the-art researches, in addition to skillful researchers considering some dynamic trends for future work.