International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation
Hybrid Quantum-Classical Convolutional Neural Network (HQC-CNN) for Apple Leaf Disease Classification
Saurabh Srivastava, Rajeev Kumar, Abu Bakar Abdul Hamid
Abstract
Reduced crop losses and guaranteeing agricultural productivity depend on the early and accurate detection of plant diseases. This work offers a Hybrid Quantum-Classical HQC-CNN, or convolutional in nature neural network that uses image analysis to determine various diseases of apple leaves. The model is executed using the PennyLane a system which blends quantum computing techniques with conventional deep computing methods. In the classical segment, layers for collaboration and convolution were used to extract significant spatial features from normalised and resized leaf images.These features are mapped into quantum states by Angle Embedding, and intricate patterns are revealed by StronglyEntanglingLayers processing them inside an electromagnetic circuit. The quantum information layer's output is sent to a softmax classifier, which divides the input into different disease groups using Pauli-Z expectation value measurements. The framework has been examined and developed with a publicly available dataset of apple leaf images, and it demonstrated strong performance on several evaluation parameters, such as the F1-s remembering, reliability, and quality. These findings show how well the model can identify a range of leaf diseases and point to how it could help precision farming and the broader field of quantum improved neural networks.