With the rising number of actual data, the challenges of huge model operations and poor generalization capacity arise, making the selection of the right feature set a significant issue. This study proposes ImprovedRFECV, an enhanced feature selection approach for cross-validated recursive feature elimination (RFECV). The algorithm first increases the robustness of the optimal feature subset by randomly sampling different data, building multiple models, and comparing the scores. Simultaneously, L1 regularization term and L2 regularization term scores are introduced to thoroughly evaluate the value of each feature, reducing the influence on the anti-interference term and further improving the algorithm’s accuracy and stability. Additionally, a multi-model ensemble learning framework is utilized to promote generalization ability and effectively prevent overfitting. Finally, a both-end expansion removal strategy is adopted to solve the problem of strong covariance of features while enhancing the flexibility of the algorithm. The experimental results show that, when compared to the RFECV algorithm, the ImprovedRFECV algorithm obtains fewer optimal average features and performs better on the optimal feature subset on five datasets from five different domains, demonstrating the algorithm’s high robustness and generalization ability.

As data science advances, automated machine learning (AutoML) gains attention for lowering barriers, saving time, and enhancing efficiency. However, with increasing data dimensionality, AutoML struggles with large-scale feature sets. Effective feature selection is crucial for efficient AutoML in multi-task applications. This study proposes an efficient modeling framework combining a multi-stage feature selection (MSFS) algorithm and AutoSklearn, a robust and efficient AutoML framework, to address high-dimensional data challenges. The MSFS algorithm includes three stages: mutual information gain (MIG), recursive feature elimination with cross-validation (RFECV), and a voting aggregation mechanism, ensuring comprehensive consideration of feature correlation, importance, and stability. Based on multi-source and time series remote sensing data, this study pioneers the application of AutoSklearn for forest fire risk prediction. Using this case study, we compare MSFS with five other feature selection (FS) algorithms, including three single FS algorithms and two hybrid FS algorithms. Results show that MSFS selects half of the original features (12/24), effectively handling collinearity (eliminating 11 out of 13 collinear feature groups) and increasing AutoSklearn’s success rate by 15%, outperforming two FS algorithms with the same number of features by 7% and 5%. Among the six FS algorithms and non-FS, MSFS demonstrates the highest prediction performance and stability with minimal variance (0.09%) across five evaluation metrics. MSFS efficiently filters redundant features, enhancing AutoSklearn’s operational efficiency and generalization ability in high-dimensional tasks. The MSFS–AutoSklearn framework significantly improves AutoML’s production efficiency and prediction accuracy, facilitating the efficient implementation of various real-world tasks and the wider application of AutoML.

Banana Fusarium wilt (BFW, also known as Panama disease) is a highly infectious and destructive disease that threatens global banana production, requiring early recognition for timely prevention and control. Current monitoring methods primarily rely on continuous variable features—such as band reflectances (BRs) and vegetation indices (VIs)—collectively referred to as basic features (BFs)—which are prone to noise during the early stages of infection and struggle to capture subtle spectral variations, thus limiting the recognition accuracy. To address this limitation, this study proposes a discretized enhanced feature (EF) construction method, the automated kernel density segmentation-based feature construction algorithm (AutoKDFC). By analyzing the differences in the kernel density distributions between healthy and diseased samples, the AutoKDFC automatically determines the optimal segmentation threshold, converting continuous BFs into binary features with higher discriminative power for early-stage recognition. Using UAV-based multi-spectral imagery, BFW recognition models are developed and tested with the random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and Gaussian naïve Bayes (GNB) algorithms. The results show that EFs exhibit significantly stronger correlations with BFW’s presence than original BFs. Feature importance analysis via RF further confirms that EFs contribute more to the model performance, with VI-derived features outperforming BR-based ones. The integration of EFs results in average performance gains of 0.88%, 2.61%, and 3.07% for RF, SVM, and GNB, respectively, with SVM achieving the best performance, averaging over 90%. Additionally, the generated BFW distribution map closely aligns with ground observations and captures spectral changes linked to disease progression, validating the method’s practical utility. Overall, the proposed AutoKDFC method demonstrates high effectiveness and generalizability for BFW recognition. Its core concept of “automatic feature enhancement” has strong potential for broader applications in crop disease monitoring and supports the development of intelligent early warning systems in plant health management.