UAV-Based LiDAR and Multispectral Imaging for Estimating Dry Bean Plant Height, Lodging and Seed Yield

Abstract

Dry bean, the fourth-largest pulse crop in Canada is increasingly impacted by climate variability, needing efficient methods to support cultivar development. This study investigates the potential of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and multispectral imaging (MSI) for high-throughput phenotyping of dry bean traits. Image data were collected across two dry bean field trials to assess plant height, lodging and seed yield. Multiple LiDAR-derived features accessing canopy height, crop lodging and digital biomass were evaluated against manual height measurements, visually rated lodging scale and seed yield, respectively. At the same time, three MSI-derived data were used to estimate seed yield. Classification- and regression-based machine learning models were used to estimate key agronomic traits using both LiDAR and MSI-based crop features. The canopy height derived from LiDAR showed a good correlation (R2 = 0.86) with measured plant height at the mid-pod filling (R6) stage. Lodging classification was most effective using Gradient Boosting, Random Forest and Logistic Regression, with R8 (physiological maturity stage) canopy height being the dominant predictor. For seed yield prediction, models integrating LiDAR and MSI outperformed individual datasets, with Gradient Boosting Regression Trees yielding the highest accuracy (R2 = 0.64, RMSE = 687.2 kg/ha and MAE = 521.6 kg/ha). Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at the R6 stage was identified as the most informative spectral feature. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of integrating UAV-based LiDAR and MSI for accurate, non-destructive phenotyping in dry bean breeding programs.

Plant phenotyping relevance

UAV LiDAR・マルチスペクトル画像と機械学習を用いて、乾燥インゲンの草丈・倒伏・収量を非破壊推定し、手測定等と検証しており、表現型取得手法が研究の中心です。

Code and data availability

The supplied article blocks describe UAV LiDAR/multispectral phenotyping of dry bean (plant height, lodging, seed yield) with machine learning, but contain no data availability statement, no public dataset deposit, no author code/scripts or trained model release, and no supplement reference. Only commercial software (D

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