biostudies-literatureLu XFundamental Research Funds for the Central UniversitiesKey Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Provincethe National Key R & D Program0265https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11499587biostudies-literatureUnknown6The number of panicles per unit area (PNpA) is one of the key factors contributing to the grain yield of rice crops. Accurate PNpA quantification is vital for breeding high-yield rice cultivars. Previous studies were based on proximal sensing with fixed observation platforms or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The near-canopy images produced in these studies suffer from inefficiency and complex image processing pipelines that require manual image cropping and annotation. This study aims to develop an automated, high-throughput UAV imagery-based approach for field plot segmentation and panicle number quantification, along with a novel classification method for different panicle types, enhancing PNpA quantification at the plot level. RGB images of the rice canopy were efficiently captured atPlant phenomics (Washington, D.C.)Phenotyping of Panicle Number and Shape in Rice Breeding Materials Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery.PMC114995872021YFD2000104226-2022-002172020C02002Yang XShu QShen ZLu XXie JCen HShen YChen SfalsePhenotyping of Panicle Number and Shape in Rice Breeding Materials Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery.The number of panicles per unit area (PNpA) is one of the key factors contributing to the grain yield of rice crops. Accurate PNpA quantification is vital for breeding high-yield rice cultivars. Previous studies were based on proximal sensing with fixed observation platforms or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The near-canopy images produced in these studies suffer from inefficiency and complex image processing pipelines that require manual image cropping and annotation. This study aims to develop an automated, high-throughput UAV imagery-based approach for field plot segmentation and panicle number quantification, along with a novel classification method for different panicle types, enhancing PNpA quantification at the plot level. RGB images of the rice canopy were efficiently captured at2024-01-01T00:00:00Z20242025-04-18T14:58:39.362Z2025-04-07T01:23:31.326ZS-EPMC114995873944997410.34133/plantphenomics.0265