
Wang ZHANG, Yi REN, Zidi GUO, Han LI, Man ZHANG, Jie LIU, Ruicheng QIU. Improved lightweight convolutional neural network models for the detection and evaluation of Fusarium head blight in wheat[J]. Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, 2026, 27(5): 450-465.
@article{title="Improved lightweight convolutional neural network models for the detection and evaluation of Fusarium head blight in wheat",
author="Wang ZHANG, Yi REN, Zidi GUO, Han LI, Man ZHANG, Jie LIU, Ruicheng QIU",
journal="Journal of Zhejiang University Science B",
volume="27",
number="5",
pages="450-465",
year="2026",
publisher="Zhejiang University Press & Springer",
doi="10.1631/jzus.B2500225"
}
%0 Journal Article
%T Improved lightweight convolutional neural network models for the detection and evaluation of Fusarium head blight in wheat
%A Wang ZHANG
%A Yi REN
%A Zidi GUO
%A Han LI
%A Man ZHANG
%A Jie LIU
%A Ruicheng QIU
%J Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B
%V 27
%N 5
%P 450-465
%@ 1673-1581
%D 2026
%I Zhejiang University Press & Springer
%DOI 10.1631/jzus.B2500225
TY - JOUR
T1 - Improved lightweight convolutional neural network models for the detection and evaluation of Fusarium head blight in wheat
A1 - Wang ZHANG
A1 - Yi REN
A1 - Zidi GUO
A1 - Han LI
A1 - Man ZHANG
A1 - Jie LIU
A1 - Ruicheng QIU
J0 - Journal of Zhejiang University Science B
VL - 27
IS - 5
SP - 450
EP - 465
%@ 1673-1581
Y1 - 2026
PB - Zhejiang University Press & Springer
ER -
DOI - 10.1631/jzus.B2500225
Abstract: fusarium head blight (FHB), a frequent disease in wheat cultivation, can lead to substantial yield losses and the production of mycotoxins in grains. Therefore, the development of wheat varieties resistant to FHB is an important strategy to reduce related losses. In this respect, manual surveys of FHB are time-consuming and labor-intensive. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes a method for detecting and evaluating wheat FHB using color imaging and deep learning. Initially, a lightweight convolutional neural network model based on the you Only Look Once (YOLO) v8s artificial intelligence (AI) model was designed to detect wheat spikes from color images. Testing revealed that the model’s mean average precision in spike detection reached 0.964. Moreover, another lightweight model was developed for detecting wheat spikelet and FHB. To enhance the detection capability of the model for small objects, space-to-depth convolution (SPD-Conv) and BiFormer attention modules were integrated. The results indicated that the model can accurately detect spikelet and FHB, with a mean average precision of 0.936. Finally, based on the wheat spikelet detection results, the rate of diseased wheat spikes (RD_S) and the disease index for wheat (DI_W) were calculated to evaluate the severity of wheat FHB. For RD_S and DI_W, the coefficients of determination between phytologists’ evaluations and the estimates derived from the proposed method were 0.71 and 0.93, respectively. These results demonstrate that the proposed method facilitates the accurate and efficient detection of wheat FHB and contributes to the quantitative evaluation of FHB in the field.
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CLC number:
On-line Access: 2026-05-15
Received: 2025-04-30
Revision Accepted: 2025-09-06
Crosschecked: 2026-05-15
Cited: 0
Clicked: 2291
Citations: Bibtex RefMan EndNote GB/T7714
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