Ultra-Wideband Microwave Imaging System for Root Phenotyping.

Abstract

The roots are a vital organ for plant growth and health. The opaque surrounding environment of the roots and the complicated growth process means that in situ and non-destructive root phenotyping face great challenges, which thus spur great research interests. The existing methods for root phenotyping are either unable to provide high-precision and high accuracy in situ detection, or they change the surrounding root environment and are destructive to root growth and health. Thus,we propose and develop an ultra-wideband microwave scanning method that uses time reversal to achieve in situ root phenotyping nondestructively. To verify the method’s feasibility, we studied an electromagnetic numerical model that simulates the transmission signal of two ultra-wideband microwave antennas. The simulated signal of roots with different shapes shows the proposed system’s capability to measure the root size in the soil. Experimental validations were conducted considering three sets of measurements with different sizes, numbers and locations, and the experimental results indicate that the developed imaging system was able to differentiate root sizes and numbers with high contrast. The reconstruction from both simulations and experimental measurements provided accurate size estimation of the carrots in the soil, which indicates the system’s potential for root imaging.

Plant phenotyping relevance

根のサイズ・本数を非破壊で推定する超広帯域マイクロ波画像化法を開発し、数値モデルと実験で検証しており、植物表現型取得法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The article describes an ultra-wideband microwave imaging system for root phenotyping with simulations and carrot experiments, but contains no data availability, code availability, or supplementary asset statements. No public dataset, image/sensor data deposit, author code, or trained model is referenced; only ORCID, C

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.