GLDCNet: A novel convolutional neural network for grapevine leafroll disease recognition using UAV-based imagery

•A novel CNN is proposed for grapevine leafroll disease detection.•Sixteen datasets are created from UAV-based images.•Effects of spatial-resolution and VIs on classification were evaluated.•GradCAMs localized higher spatial resolution helps ResdNet find more important parts. High-throughput phenotyping of grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) at the canopy scale helps develop fast and effective management in viticulture. However, detecting GLD efficiently in a vineyard is challenging owing to the limited adaptation of prior art. Therefore, we propose a novel convolutional neural network called GLDCNet to improve GLD recognition using unmanned aerial vehicle–based imagery. The effectiveness of the GLDCNet is attributed to the four new network designs used and is validated through ablation experiments. The GLDCNet achieves a classification accuracy of 99.57% using the RGB dataset and obtains more efficient and accurate results than nine other state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, we systematically evaluated the impacts of image spatial resolution and vegetation indexes on the classification performance of the model. Experimental results suggest that improving image spatial resolution is more cost-effective than enhancing multispectral information for improving GLD recognition. Our proposed method offers a rapid, scalable, and accurate diagnostic protocol for detecting GLD in vineyards.