SC-NeRF: NeRF-based Point Cloud Reconstruction using a Stationary Camera for Agricultural Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a NeRF-based framework for point cloud (PCD) reconstruction, specifically designed for indoor high-throughput plant phenotyping facilities. Traditional NeRF-based reconstruction methods require cameras to move around stationary objects, but this approach is impractical for high-throughput environments where objects are rapidly imaged while moving on conveyors or rotating pedestals. To address this limitation, we develop a variant of NeRF-based PCD reconstruction that uses a single stationary camera to capture images as the object rotates on a pedestal. Our workflow comprises COLMAP-based pose estimation, a straightforward pose transformation to simulate camera movement, and subsequent standard NeRF training. A defined Region of Interest (ROI) excludes irrelevant scene data, enabling the generation of high-resolution point clouds (10M points). Experimental results demonstrate excellent reconstruction fidelity, with precision-recall analyses yielding an F-score close to 100.00 across all evaluated plant objects. Although pose estimation remains computationally intensive with a stationary camera setup, overall training and reconstruction times are competitive, validating the method's feasibility for practical high-throughput indoor phenotyping applications. Our findings indicate that high-quality NeRF-based 3D reconstructions are achievable using a stationary camera, eliminating the need for complex camera motion or costly imaging equipment. This approach is especially beneficial when employing expensive and delicate instruments, such as hyperspectral cameras, for 3D plant phenotyping. Future work will focus on optimizing pose estimation techniques and further streamlining the methodology to facilitate seamless integration into automated, high-throughput 3D phenotyping pipelines.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物フェノタイピング施設向けに、固定カメラ画像からNeRFで植物の3D点群を再構成する手法を開発・評価しており、表現型取得が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper explicitly releases its full SC-NeRF dataset (raw 4K videos, frames, COLMAP poses, NeRF checkpoints, and final 10M-point clouds for six plant/produce objects) on Hugging Face, and states that all datasets and the authors' code are available at the project page. Both are paper-specific, public, and actionable.