Estimation of Forage Biomass in Oat (Avena sativa) Using Agronomic Variables through UAV Multispectral Imaging

Abstract

Accurate and timely estimation of oat biomass is crucial for the development of sustainable and efficient agricultural practices. This research focused on estimating and predicting forage oat biomass using UAV and agronomic variables. A Matrice 300 equipped with a multispectral camera was used for 14 flights, capturing 21 spectral indices per flight. Concurrently, agronomic data were collected at six stages synchronized with UAV flights. Data analysis involved correlations and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify significant variables. Predictive models for forage biomass were developed using various machine learning techniques: linear regression, Random Forests (RFs), Support Vector Machines (SVMs), and Neural Networks (NNs). The Random Forest model showed the best performance, with a coefficient of determination R2 of 0.52 on the test set, followed by Support Vector Machines with an R2 of 0.50. Differences in root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) among the models highlighted variations in prediction accuracy. This study underscores the effectiveness of photogrammetry, UAV, and machine learning in estimating forage biomass, demonstrating that the proposed approach can provide relatively accurate estimations for this purpose.

Plant phenotyping relevance

UAVマルチスペクトル画像と機械学習を用いてオート麦の飼料バイオマスを推定する手法が研究の中心であり、植物形質の取得・予測ワークフローを実質的に評価している。

Code and data availability

The paper's UAV multispectral imagery, agronomic/phenotype measurements, and machine-learning analysis code are not publicly deposited. The Data Availability Statement directs inquiries to the corresponding author, so any paper-specific data or code would need to be requested. All URLs in the allowed list are either a

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.