Early Yield Prediction of Oilseed Rape Using UAV-Based Hyperspectral Imaging Combined with Machine Learning Algorithms

Hongyan Zhu (), Chengzhi Lin, Zhihao Dong, Jun-Li Xu and Yong He ()
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Hongyan Zhu: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Brain-Inspired Computing and Intelligent Chips, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
Chengzhi Lin: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Brain-Inspired Computing and Intelligent Chips, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
Zhihao Dong: Guangxi Key Laboratory of Brain-Inspired Computing and Intelligent Chips, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
Jun-Li Xu: School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin (UCD), Belfield, 4 Dublin, Ireland
Yong He: College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-24

Abstract: Oilseed rape yield critically reflects varietal superiority. Rapid field-scale estimation enables efficient high-throughput breeding. This study evaluates unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral imagery’s potential for yield prediction at the pod stage by utilizing wavelength selection and vegetation indices. Meanwhile, optimized feature selection algorithms identified effective wavelengths (EWs) and vegetation indices (VIs) for yield estimation. The optimal yield estimation models based on EWs and VIs were established, respectively, by using multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least squares regression (PLSR), extreme learning machine (ELM), and a least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). The main results were as follows: (i) The yield prediction of oilseed rape using EWs showed better prediction and robustness compared to the full-spectral model. In particular, the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling–extreme learning machine (CARS-ELM) model (R pre = 0.8122, RMSE P = 170.4 kg/hm 2 ) achieved the best prediction performance. (ii) The ELM model (R pre = 0.7674 and RMSE P = 187.6 kg/hm 2 ), using 14 combined VIs, showed excellent performance. These results indicate that the remote sensing image data obtained from the UAV hyperspectral remote sensing system can be used to enable the high-throughput acquisition of oilseed rape yield information in the field. This study provides technical guidance for the crop yield estimation and high-throughput detection of breeding information.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle; oilseed rape; hyperspectral imaging; yield prediction; machine learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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