Unmanned aerial vehicle image detection of maize-YOLOv8n seedling leakage.

Introduction: Missing seedlings is a common issue in field maize planting, arising from limitations in sowing machinery and seed germination rates. This phenomenon directly impacts maize yields owing to the poor effect of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing images based on seedling leakage detection in fields. Therefore, this study proposed a method for detecting missing seedling in fields based on UAV remote sensing to quickly and accurately detect missing seedling and facilitate subsequent crop management decisions. Methods: The method calculates the rated inter-seedling distance in UAV-captured images of maize fields using a combination of image processing techniques, including background segmentation, stalk center region detection, linear fitting of plant rows, and average plant distance calculation. Based on these calculations, an improved Maize-YOLOv8n model was employed to detect actual seedling emergence. Results: The experimental results demonstrate that the new model achieved superior performance on a self-constructed dataset, with a mean average precision (mAP) of 97.4%, precision (P) of 94.3%, recall (R) of 93.1%, and an F1 score of 93.7%. The model was lightweight, comprising only 1.19 million parameters and requiring 20.2 floating-point operations per second (FLOPs). The inference time was 12.8 ms, satisfying real-time detection requirements. Performance evaluations across various conditions, including different leaf stages, light intensities, and weed interference levels, further indicated the robustness of the model. In addition, a linear regression equation was developed to predict the total number of missing seedlings, with model performance evaluated using the root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) metrics. Discussion: The results confirm the ability of the model to accurately detect maize seedling gaps. This study can evaluate the quality of seeding operations and provide accurate information on the number of missing seedlings for timely replacement work in areas with high rates of missing seedlings. This study advances precision agriculture by enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of maize planting management.