Edge-Deployable Stereo Vision for Fish Biomass Estimation via Lightweight YOLOv11n-Pose and Dynamic Geometry

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Authors: Cheuk Yiu Cheng, C Geoffrey Lau
Cited by: 1
References: 42

Abstract

Non-invasive, real-time biomass estimation is critical for smart aquaculture, yet high computational latency and the cost of specialized optical sensors remain significant bottlenecks. This study proposes an ultra-low-cost, edge-deployable stereo-vision framework utilizing a dual-webcam architecture synchronized with a lightweight YOLOv11n-pose model. To address the spatial uncertainties in non-rigid fish locomotion, we integrated advanced spatial loss functions to achieve precise anatomical keypoint extraction. These coordinates are processed through a three-point Bézier curve interpolation and a mathematically derived Dynamic Shape Factor (K) to correct for optical refraction and morphological variations. As a proof-of-concept, the proposed system was validated on a live multi-species cohort (N = 10), achieving a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 8.64% and an R2 of 0.92 under strict Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (LOOCV), drastically outperforming traditional naive volumetric baselines (MAPE > 54%). Requiring only 6.7 GFLOPs and 5.5 MB of memory, the model achieves 111.6 FPS. These results demonstrate the feasibility of highly efficient, cost-effective AI solutions for precision aquaculture while clearly defining the validity boundaries and statistical constraints for future large-scale deployment.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Water Quality Monitoring Technologies Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms Zebrafish Biomedical Research Applications

Publication details

Journal / source
Applied Sciences
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
16
Issue
9
Pages
4125–4125
Publication date
23 April 2026
Language
EN