Application of UAV Multisensor Data and Ensemble Approach for High-Throughput Estimation of Maize Phenotyping Traits

High-throughput estimation of phenotypic traits from UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) images is helpful to improve the screening efficiency of breeding maize. Accurately estimating phenotyping traits of breeding maize at plot scale helps to promote gene mining for specific traits and provides a guarantee for accelerating the breeding of superior varieties. Constructing an efficient and accurate estimation model is the key to the application of UAV-based multiple sensors data. This study aims to apply the ensemble learning model to improve the feasibility and accuracy of estimating maize phenotypic traits using UAV-based red-green-blue (RGB) and multispectral sensors. The UAV images of four growth stages were obtained, respectively. The reflectance of visible light bands, canopy coverage, plant height (PH), and texture information were extracted from RGB images, and the vegetation indices were calculated from multispectral images. We compared and analyzed the estimation accuracy of single-type feature and multiple features for LAI (leaf area index), fresh weight (FW), and dry weight (DW) of maize. The basic models included ridge regression (RR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), Gaussian process (GP), and K-neighbor network (K-NN). The ensemble learning models included stacking and Bayesian model averaging (BMA). The results showed that the ensemble learning model improved the accuracy and stability of maize phenotypic traits estimation. Among the features extracted from UAV RGB images, the highest accuracy was obtained by the combination of spectrum, structure, and texture features. The model had the best accuracy constructed using all features of two sensors. The estimation accuracies of ensemble learning models, including stacking and BMA, were higher than those of the basic models. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) of the optimal validation results were 0.852, 0.888, and 0.929 for LAI, FW, and DW, respectively. Therefore, the combination of UAV-based multisource data and ensemble learning model could accurately estimate phenotyping traits of breeding maize at plot scale.