Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning

Insect damage can significantly affect seed germination rates and overall seed quality, resulting in notable economic losses. Detecting insect-damaged seeds is vital for upholding food safety standards and satisfying consumer expectations in confectionery sunflower markets. To tackle this issue, thi...

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Main Authors: Bright Mensah, Jarrad Prasifka, Brent Hulke, Ewumbua Monono, Xin Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-12-01
Series:Smart Agricultural Technology
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525003430
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author Bright Mensah
Jarrad Prasifka
Brent Hulke
Ewumbua Monono
Xin Sun
author_facet Bright Mensah
Jarrad Prasifka
Brent Hulke
Ewumbua Monono
Xin Sun
author_sort Bright Mensah
collection DOAJ
description Insect damage can significantly affect seed germination rates and overall seed quality, resulting in notable economic losses. Detecting insect-damaged seeds is vital for upholding food safety standards and satisfying consumer expectations in confectionery sunflower markets. To tackle this issue, this study explores the potential of hyperspectral imaging combined with machine learning to accurately classify damaged and undamaged sunflower seeds. Spectral data were acquired and preprocessed using principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce dimensionality while retaining essential spectral information. Machine learning techniques, specifically multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), light gradient boosting machine (LGBM), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), gradient boosting (GB), and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), were trained and evaluated based on the spectral features. The results showed that MLP achieved the highest classification performance with an accuracy of 0.91 and an F1-score of 0.91, followed by SVM with an accuracy of 0.89 and an F1-score of 0.89. LGBM and RF also performed well, both achieving an accuracy of 0.88 and an F1-score of 0.88, while XGB and GB recorded accuracies of 0.85 and 0.86, respectively. In contrast, PLS-DA demonstrated the lowest performance, with accuracy falling to 0.65 and an F1-score of 0.64. These findings underscore the effectiveness of machine learning in utilizing hyperspectral data for precise seed quality assessment. Its integration into the seed sorting process can enhance seed inspections, food safety, damage scoring for scientific investigations, and ensure that only high-quality seeds are chosen for planting.
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spelling doaj-art-8ecc196f2adc46e49c10da0e7b253c122025-08-20T02:37:06ZengElsevierSmart Agricultural Technology2772-37552025-12-011210111010.1016/j.atech.2025.101110Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learningBright Mensah0Jarrad Prasifka1Brent Hulke2Ewumbua Monono3Xin Sun4Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USASunflower Improvement Research Unit, Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Fargo, ND 58102, USASunflower Improvement Research Unit, Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Fargo, ND 58102, USADepartment of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USADepartment of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA; Corresponding author.Insect damage can significantly affect seed germination rates and overall seed quality, resulting in notable economic losses. Detecting insect-damaged seeds is vital for upholding food safety standards and satisfying consumer expectations in confectionery sunflower markets. To tackle this issue, this study explores the potential of hyperspectral imaging combined with machine learning to accurately classify damaged and undamaged sunflower seeds. Spectral data were acquired and preprocessed using principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce dimensionality while retaining essential spectral information. Machine learning techniques, specifically multilayer perceptron (MLP), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), light gradient boosting machine (LGBM), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), gradient boosting (GB), and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), were trained and evaluated based on the spectral features. The results showed that MLP achieved the highest classification performance with an accuracy of 0.91 and an F1-score of 0.91, followed by SVM with an accuracy of 0.89 and an F1-score of 0.89. LGBM and RF also performed well, both achieving an accuracy of 0.88 and an F1-score of 0.88, while XGB and GB recorded accuracies of 0.85 and 0.86, respectively. In contrast, PLS-DA demonstrated the lowest performance, with accuracy falling to 0.65 and an F1-score of 0.64. These findings underscore the effectiveness of machine learning in utilizing hyperspectral data for precise seed quality assessment. Its integration into the seed sorting process can enhance seed inspections, food safety, damage scoring for scientific investigations, and ensure that only high-quality seeds are chosen for planting.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525003430Hyperspectral imagingSunflower seedMachine learningPCAFeatures extraction
spellingShingle Bright Mensah
Jarrad Prasifka
Brent Hulke
Ewumbua Monono
Xin Sun
Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
Smart Agricultural Technology
Hyperspectral imaging
Sunflower seed
Machine learning
PCA
Features extraction
title Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
title_full Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
title_fullStr Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
title_full_unstemmed Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
title_short Detection of insect-damaged sunflower seeds using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
title_sort detection of insect damaged sunflower seeds using near infrared hyperspectral imaging and machine learning
topic Hyperspectral imaging
Sunflower seed
Machine learning
PCA
Features extraction
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525003430
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