Diminishing Returns of Algorithmic Complexity: A Cost-Benefit Evaluation of UAV Image Enhancement for Precision Weed Detection in Rice Farming

Muhamad Syaiful Huda; Budi Setiyono

doi:10.59261/bustechno.v7i4.814

Authors

Muhamad Syaiful Huda Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Budi Setiyono Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59261/bustechno.v7i4.814

Keywords:

Precision Agriculture, Image Enhancement, Cost-Effectiveness, Weed Detection, Technology Adoption

Abstract

Background: Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery is increasingly used for weed detection in rice fields, but limited spatial resolution can constrain segmentation performance. Image enhancement may improve detection; however, it remains uncertain whether computationally complex, deep learning–based enhancement provides task-level gains beyond those achieved through classical interpolation.

Objective: This study evaluates whether increasing enhancement complexity yields additional weed-detection benefits across four image conditions.

Methods: Using 148 UAV images from the WeedyRice-RGBMS-DB dataset, intersection over union (IoU) was measured under four image conditions: no enhancement, nearest-neighbor interpolation, bicubic interpolation, and an image-restoration enhancement (IRE) method. The U-Net model with an EfficientNet-B5 backbone was held constant across all conditions. Paired differences were evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Holm–Bonferroni correction, and effect sizes were quantified using Cohen’s d.

Results: All enhancement conditions outperformed the no-enhancement condition (adjusted p < 0.001). Nearest-neighbor interpolation performed worse than both bicubic interpolation and IRE (adjusted p < 0.02), whereas bicubic interpolation and IRE did not differ significantly (adjusted p = 0.937; d = 0.019), despite IRE achieving higher peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index measure (SSIM) values.

Conclusion: For this dataset and detector, the task-level benefits of image enhancement plateaued at bicubic interpolation. This finding supports a cautious technology-selection principle: more complex enhancement methods should be justified by measurable downstream gains, while claims of economic superiority require direct measurement of computing, hardware, licensing, and implementation costs.

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