# WeedCLR: Weed Contrastive Learning through Visual Representations with Class-Optimized Loss in Long-Tailed Datasets

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.12465 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12465/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 25 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Oct 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Representation Learning with Contrastive Predictive Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03748/) (2018)
- [Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14294/) (2021)
- [Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07733/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Visual Features by Contrasting Cluster Assignments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09882/) (2020)
- [Improved Baselines with Momentum Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.04297/) (2020)
- [Barlow Twins: Self-Supervised Learning via Redundancy Reduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03230/) (2021)
- [SimMIM: A Simple Framework for Masked Image Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09886/) (2021)
- [Large Batch Training of Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.03888/) (2017)
- [A Theoretical Analysis of Contrastive Unsupervised Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.09229/) (2019)
- [Quantifying the Carbon Emissions of Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.09700/) (2019)
- [Implicit Regularization in Deep Matrix Factorization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.13655/) (2019)
- [With a Little Help from My Friends: Nearest-Neighbor Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14548/) (2021)
- [Implicit Regularization in Matrix Factorization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.09280/) (2017)
- [Understanding self-supervised Learning Dynamics without Contrastive Pairs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.06810/) (2021)
- [A mathematical theory of semantic development in deep neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.10531/) (2018)
- [Gradient descent aligns the layers of deep linear networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.02032/) (2018)
- [Predicting What You Already Know Helps: Provable Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.01064/) (2020)
- [Contrastive learning, multi-view redundancy, and linear models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10150/) (2020)
- [Decoupled Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06848/) (2021)
- [Towards Understanding the Role of Over-Parametrization in Generalization of Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.12076/) (2018)
- [DeepWeeds: A Multiclass Weed Species Image Dataset for Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.05726/) (2018)
- [VNE: An Effective Method for Improving Deep Representation by Manipulating Eigenvalue Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01434/) (2023)
- [Performance Evaluation of Deep Transfer Learning on Multiclass Identification of Common Weed Species in Cotton Production Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04960/) (2021)
- [TiCo: Transformation Invariance and Covariance Contrast for Self-Supervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10698/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Weed Detection in Challenging Field Conditions: A Semi-Supervised Framework for Overcoming Shadow Bias and Data Scarcity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19511/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Image classification is a crucial task in modern weed management and crop intervention technologies. However, the limited size, diversity, and balance of existing weed datasets hinder the development of deep learning models for generalizable weed identification. In addition, the expensive labelling requirements of mainstream fully-supervised weed classifiers make them cost- and time-prohibitive to deploy widely, for new weed species, and in site-specific weed management. This paper proposes a novel method for Weed Contrastive Learning through visual Representations (WeedCLR), that uses class-optimized loss with Von Neumann Entropy of deep representation for weed classification in long-tailed datasets. WeedCLR leverages self-supervised learning to learn rich and robust visual features without any labels and applies a class-optimized loss function to address the class imbalance problem in long-tailed datasets. WeedCLR is evaluated on two public weed datasets: CottonWeedID15, containing 15 weed species, and DeepWeeds, containing 8 weed species. WeedCLR achieves an average accuracy improvement of 4.3% on CottonWeedID15 and 5.6% on DeepWeeds over previous methods. It also demonstrates better generalization ability and robustness to different environmental conditions than existing methods without the need for expensive and time-consuming human annotations. These significant improvements make WeedCLR an effective tool for weed classification in long-tailed datasets and allows for more rapid and widespread deployment of site-specific weed management and crop intervention technologies.