Abstract
This study aimed to explore the feasibility of applying Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for the diagnosis of Verticillium wilt disease in cotton and compared it with traditional data augmentation methods and transfer learning. By designing a model based on small-sample learning, we proposed an innovative cotton Verticillium wilt disease diagnosis system. The system uses Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) as feature extractors and applies trained GAN models for sample augmentation to improve classification accuracy. This study collected and processed a dataset of cotton Verticillium wilt disease images, including samples from normal and infected plants. Data augmentation techniques were used to expand the dataset and train the CNNs. Transfer learning using InceptionV3 was applied to train the CNNs on the dataset. The dataset was augmented using GAN algorithms and used to train CNNs. The performances of the data augmentation, transfer learning, and GANs were compared and analyzed. The results have demonstrated that augmenting the cotton Verticillium wilt disease image dataset using GAN algorithms enhanced the diagnostic accuracy and recall rate of the CNNs. Compared to traditional data augmentation methods, GANs exhibit better performance and generated more representative and diverse samples. Unlike transfer learning, GANs ensured an adequate sample size. By visualizing the images generated, GANs were found to generate realistic cotton images of Verticillium wilt disease, highlighting their potential applications in agricultural disease diagnosis. This study has demonstrated the potential of GANs in the diagnosis of cotton Verticillium wilt disease diagnosis, offering an effective approach for agricultural disease detection and providing insights into disease detection in other crops.