Accurate and timely prediction of oilseed rape yield is crucial in precision agriculture and field remote sensing. We explored the feasibility and potential for predicting oilseed rape yield through the utilization of a UAV-based platform equipped with RGB and multispectral cameras. Genetic algorithm–partial least square was employed and evaluated for effective wavelength (EW) or vegetation index (VI) selection. Additionally, different machine learning algorithms, i.e., multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least squares regression (PLSR), least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM), back propagation neural network (BPNN), extreme learning machine (ELM), and radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), were developed and compared. With multi-source data fusion by combining vegetation indices (color and narrow-band VIs), robust prediction models of yield in oilseed rape were built. The performance of prediction models using the combination of VIs (RBFNN: R_pre = 0.8143, RMSEP = 171.9 kg/hm²) from multiple sensors manifested better results than those using only narrow-band VIs (BPNN: R_pre = 0.7655, RMSEP = 188.3 kg/hm²) from a multispectral camera. The best models for yield prediction were found by applying BPNN (R_pre = 0.8114, RMSEP = 172.6 kg/hm²) built from optimal EWs and ELM (R_pre = 0.8118, RMSEP = 170.9 kg/hm²) using optimal VIs. Taken together, the findings conclusively illustrate the potential of UAV-based RGB and multispectral images for the timely and non-invasive prediction of oilseed rape yield. This study also highlights that a lightweight UAV equipped with dual-image-frame snapshot cameras holds promise as a valuable tool for high-throughput plant phenotyping and advanced breeding programs within the realm of precision agriculture.

Oilseed rape yield critically reflects varietal superiority. Rapid field-scale estimation enables efficient high-throughput breeding. This study evaluates unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral imagery’s potential for yield prediction at the pod stage by utilizing wavelength selection and vegetation indices. Meanwhile, optimized feature selection algorithms identified effective wavelengths (EWs) and vegetation indices (VIs) for yield estimation. The optimal yield estimation models based on EWs and VIs were established, respectively, by using multiple linear regression (MLR), partial least squares regression (PLSR), extreme learning machine (ELM), and a least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). The main results were as follows: (i) The yield prediction of oilseed rape using EWs showed better prediction and robustness compared to the full-spectral model. In particular, the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling–extreme learning machine (CARS-ELM) model (R_pre = 0.8122, RMSE_P = 170.4 kg/hm²) achieved the best prediction performance. (ii) The ELM model (R_pre = 0.7674 and RMSE_P = 187.6 kg/hm²), using 14 combined VIs, showed excellent performance. These results indicate that the remote sensing image data obtained from the UAV hyperspectral remote sensing system can be used to enable the high-throughput acquisition of oilseed rape yield information in the field. This study provides technical guidance for the crop yield estimation and high-throughput detection of breeding information.