Active learning with MaskAL reduces annotation effort for training Mask R-CNN on a broccoli dataset with visually similar classes

Pieter M. Blok, Gert Kootstra, Hakim Elchaoui Elghor, Boubacar Diallo, Frits K. van Evert, Eldert J. van Henten

Abstract: Highlights•MaskAL is software that can reduce the annotation effort for training Mask R-CNN.•MaskAL uses active learning to select images about which Mask R-CNN is uncertain.•On a broccoli dataset, MaskAL performed significantly better than random sampling.•By using MaskAL, 1400 image annotations were saved compared to random sampling.•The software is available on https://github.com/pieterblok/maskal.