DP-MaizeTrack: a software for tracking the number of maize plants and leaves information from UAV image.

Abstract

In modern agricultural production, accurate monitoring of maize growth and leaf counting is crucial for precision management and crop breeding optimization. Current UAV-based methods for detecting maize seedlings and leaves often face challenges in achieving high accuracy due to issues such as low spatial-resolution, complex field environments, variations in plant scale and orientation. To address these challenges, this study develops an integrated detection and visualization software, DP-MaizeTrack, which incorporates the DP-YOLOv8 model based on YOLOv8. The DP-YOLOv8 model integrates three key improvements. The Multi-Scale Feature Enhancement (MSFE) module improves detection accuracy across different scales. The Optimized Spatial Pyramid Pooling-Fast (OSPPF) module enhances feature extraction in diverse field conditions. Experimental results in single-plant detection show that the DP-YOLOv8 model outperforms the baseline YOLOv8 with improvements of 3.9% in Precision (95.1%), 4.1% in Recall (91.5%), and 4.0% in mAP50 (94.9%). The software also demonstrates good accuracy in the visualization results for single-plant and leaf detection tasks. Furthermore, DP-MaizeTrack not only automates the detection process but also integrates agricultural analysis tools, including region segmentation and data statistics, to support precision agricultural management and leaf-age analysis. The source code and models are available at https://github.com/clhclhc/project.

Plant phenotyping relevance

UAV画像からトウモロコシ個体数と葉数を抽出するソフトウェアを開発しており、植物形質取得が研究の中心です。

Code and data availability

The paper explicitly states that the authors' source code and trained models for DP-MaizeTrack/DP-YOLOv8 are publicly available on GitHub. No public dataset deposit is stated; the UAV image dataset is described but not declared publicly available.