Solar renewable energy (SRE) applications are substantial in eradicating the rising global energy shortages and reversing the approaching environmental apocalypse. Hence, effective solar irradiance forecasting models are crucial in utilizing SRE efficiently. This paper introduces a partially amended hybrid model (PAHM) by the implementation of a new algorithm. The algorithm innovatively utilizes bi-directional gated unit (Bi-GRU), autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and naive decomposition models to predict solar irradiance in 5-min and 60-min intervals. Meanwhile, the models’ generalizability strengths would be tested under an 11-fold cross-validation and are further classified according to their computational costs. The dataset consists of 32 months’ solar irradiance and weather conditions records. A fundamental result of this study was that the single models (Bi-GRU and ARIMA) outperformed the hybrid models (PAHM, classical hybrid model) in the 5-min predictions, negating the assumptions that hybrid models oust single models in every time interval. PAHM provided the highest accuracy level in the 60-min predictions and improved the accuracy levels of the classical hybrid model by 5%, on average. The single models were rigorous under the 11-fold cross-validation, performing well with different datasets; although the computational efficiency of the Bi-GRU model was, by far, the best among the models.

Fertilizer misapplications have induced widespread environmental deteriorations, climatic catastrophes, and economic losses; meanwhile, the Precision Agriculture (PA) endorsements have been influential in alleviating these issues. This study intended to tackle the fertilizer consumption inefficiencies by utilizing non-destructive remote sensing technologies, soil macronutrient distribution analysis, and a deep learning model. Specifically, an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) was used in a cornfield to capture the plant’s reflectance information for retrieving the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) during the vegetative and reproductive growth stages. Consequently, the field’s soil samples were examined for their Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Carbon (NPKC) macronutrient constituencies. Finally, a Convolutional Neural Network-Regression model was developed to predict infield NPKC spatiotemporal variations in soil using the NDVI measurements. The deep learning model effectively determined the surpluses or shortages of the NPKC macronutrients within the cornfield throughout the growth stages. The model performed vigorously with R2 values of 0.93, 0.92, 0.98, and 0.83 in predicting N, P, K, and C levels in soil, respectively.

Mobility is a vital welfare indicator that may influence broilers’ daily activities. Classical broiler mobility assessment methods are laborious and cannot provide timely insights into their conditions. Here, we proposed a semi-supervised Deep Learning (DL) model, YOLOv5 (You Only Look Once version 5), combined with a deep sort algorithm conjoined with our newly proposed algorithm, neo-deep sort, for individual broiler mobility tracking. Initially, 1650 labeled images from five days were employed to train the YOLOv5 model. Through semi-supervised learning (SSL), this narrowly trained model was then used for pseudo-labeling 2160 images, of which 2153 were successfully labeled. Thereafter, the YOLOv5 model was fine-tuned on the newly labeled images. Lastly, the trained YOLOv5 and the neo-deep sort algorithm were applied to detect and track 28 broilers in two pens and categorize them in terms of hourly and daily travel distances and speeds. SSL helped in increasing the YOLOv5 model’s mean average precision (mAP) in detecting birds from 81% to 98%. Compared with the manually measured covered distances of broilers, the combined model provided individual broilers’ hourly moved distances with a validation accuracy of about 80%. Eventually, individual and flock-level mobilities were quantified while overcoming the occlusion, false, and miss-detection issues.