Paper · 2026 · Frontiers in Plant Science

Lightweight MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg: the instance segmentation of maturity on cherry tomato with improved YOLOv8n-Seg

Ronghui Miao; Zhiwei Li

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Open access · cc-by

Abstract

Introduction Automatic and accurate segmentation of cherry tomato maturity in natural environment is the foundation for automatic picking. Lacking of significant differences in adjacent maturity and the problem of mutual occlusion between fruits usually affect the picking process. According to the changes in phenotypic characteristics of cherry tomato during its mature period and the Chinese national standard GH/T 1193-2021, a lightweight maturity instance segmentation method of cherry tomato with 5 levels, including green, turning, pink, light red and red was proposed based on improved YOLOv8n-Seg model, named as MobileViTv3-SK-WIoU-YOLOv8n-Seg (MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg). Methods In this model, MobileViTv3 was introduced into the original YOLOv8 model as backbone for feature extraction to reduce the parameters of the original model; selective kernel (SK) attention module was added to the neck part to improve the feature expression ability of the model; the complete intersection over union (CIoU) loss function in the original head part was replaced with wise intersection over union (WIoU), which can effectively filter low-quality samples and improve the stability and reliability of the model in complex scenes. The proposed model can better balance the relationship between segmentation speed, accuracy, and model computational complexity. Results The experimental results show that the bounding box precision, recall and mean average precision (mAP)@0.5 of the improved model on the test sets were 90.8%, 86.3% and 83.9% respectively, and the model size was 6.0 MB. Compared with YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN (Mask region-based convolutional neural network) and Mask2Former, the bounding box precision increased by 9.6%, 5.2%, 5.7%, 12.3%, 13.3% and 5.0%, the recall increased by 7.8%, 7.4%, 8.8%, 13.1%, 13.9% and 0.1%, and the mAP@0.5 increased by 10.5%, 3.0%, 0.9%, 15.0%, 13.8% and 1.4% respectively. In terms of inference speed, the MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg has the highest inference speed, with FPS of up to 52.9 f·s -1 and latency of only 18.2ms, which demonstrates its real-time processing capability. Discussion The results show that the improved MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg model is optimal, and it suitable for instance segmentation scenarios with high real-time performance and can provide effective exploration for automated cherry tomato fruit picking.

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Claims 9

Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg model reached bounding box precision of 90.8% on the test sets for cherry tomato maturity segmentation.

Outcome
bounding box precisione0
Value
90.8%e0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

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“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the bounding box precision, recall and mean average precision (mAP)@0.5 of the improved model on the test sets were 90.8%, 86.3% and 83.9% respectively”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1393–1544 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg model reached recall of 86.3% on the test sets for cherry tomato maturity segmentation.

Outcome
recalle0
Value
86.3%e0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the bounding box precision, recall and mean average precision (mAP)@0.5 of the improved model on the test sets were 90.8%, 86.3% and 83.9% respectively”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1393–1544 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg model reached mean average precision (mAP)@0.5 of 83.9% on the test sets for cherry tomato maturity segmentation.

Outcome
mean average precision (mAP)@0.5e0
Value
83.9%e0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the bounding box precision, recall and mean average precision (mAP)@0.5 of the improved model on the test sets were 90.8%, 86.3% and 83.9% respectively”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1393–1544 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The model size of MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg was 6.0 MB.

Outcome
model sizee0
Value
6.0 MBe0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the model size was 6.0 MB”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1550–1575 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved model increased bounding box precision over YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN and Mask2Former by 9.6%, 5.2%, 5.7%, 12.3%, 13.3% and 5.0% respectively.

Outcome
bounding box precisione0
Direction
increasede0
Value
9.6%, 5.2%, 5.7%, 12.3%, 13.3% and 5.0%e0
Comparator
YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNNe1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the bounding box precision increased by 9.6%, 5.2%, 5.7%, 12.3%, 13.3% and 5.0%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1720–1799 · show in text ↑
e1

“YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1591–1653 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved model increased recall over YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN and Mask2Former by 7.8%, 7.4%, 8.8%, 13.1%, 13.9% and 0.1% respectively.

Outcome
recalle0
Direction
increasede0
Value
7.8%, 7.4%, 8.8%, 13.1%, 13.9% and 0.1%e0
Comparator
YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNNe1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the recall increased by 7.8%, 7.4%, 8.8%, 13.1%, 13.9% and 0.1%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1801–1864 · show in text ↑
e1

“YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1591–1653 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The improved model increased mAP@0.5 over YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN and Mask2Former by 10.5%, 3.0%, 0.9%, 15.0%, 13.8% and 1.4% respectively.

Outcome
mAP@0.5e0
Direction
increasede0
Value
10.5%, 3.0%, 0.9%, 15.0%, 13.8% and 1.4%e0
Comparator
YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNNe1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the mAP@0.5 increased by 10.5%, 3.0%, 0.9%, 15.0%, 13.8% and 1.4%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1870–1935 · show in text ↑
e1

“YOLOv7-Mask, YOLOv8n-Seg, YOLOv9s-Seg, YOLO11n-Seg, Mask R-CNN”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1591–1653 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg had the highest inference speed, with FPS of up to 52.9.

Outcome
FPSe0
Direction
higheste0
Value
52.9e0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“the MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg has the highest inference speed, with FPS of up to 52.9”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1979–2054 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

MSW-YOLOv8n-Seg had a latency of only 18.2 ms.

Outcome
latencye0
Value
18.2mse0

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme
Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme · TaxonJS · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“cherry tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 70–83 · show in text ↑
e0

“latency of only 18.2ms”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 2066–2088 · show in text ↑