# Rice-SVBDete: a detection algorithm for small vascular bundles in rice stem’s cross-sections

## TL;DR

Rice-SVBDete is a new algorithm that improves detection of small vascular bundles in rice stems, aiding rice research and breeding.

## Contribution

Rice-SVBDete introduces a modified YOLOv8 with DSConv, MFF, and PIoU loss for better small object detection in rice stem images.

## Key findings

- Rice-SVBDete achieves precision of 0.789, recall of 0.771, and mAP@.5 of 0.728.
- It outperforms YOLOv8 by improving precision by 0.179, recall by 0.201, and mAP@.5 by 0.227.
- The algorithm effectively detects small vascular bundles in complex microscopy images.

## Abstract

Vascular bundles play a vital role in the growth, development, and yield formation of rice. Accurate measurement of their structure and distribution is essential for improving rice breeding and cultivation strategies. However, the detection of small vascular bundles from cross-sectional images is challenging due to their tiny size and the noisy background typically present in microscopy images.

To address these challenges, we propose Rice-SVBDete, a specialized deep learning-based detection algorithm for small vascular bundles in rice stem cross-sections. Our approach enhances the YOLOv8 architecture by incorporating three key innovations: Dynamic Snake-shaped Convolution (DSConv) in the Backbone network to adaptively capture intricate structural details of small targets. A Multi-scale Feature Fusion (MFF) mechanism, combining features from the Backbone, Feature Pyramid Network (FPN), and Path Aggregation Network (PAN), to better handle objects at multiple scales. A new Powerful Intersection over Union (PIoU) loss function that emphasizes spatial consistency and positional accuracy, replacing the standard CIoU loss.

Experimental evaluations show that Rice-SVBDete achieves a precision of 0.789, recall of 0.771, and mean Average Precision (mAP@.5) of 0.728 at an IoU threshold of 0.50. Compared to the baseline YOLOv8, Rice-SVBDete improves precision by 0.179, recall by 0.201, and mAP@.5 by 0.227, demonstrating its effectiveness in small object detection.

These results highlight Rice-SVBDete's potential for accurately identifying small vascular bundles in complex backgrounds, providing a valuable tool for rice anatomical analysis and supporting advancements in precision agriculture and plant science research.