A multi-sensor stabilized phenotyping platform for accurate wheat canopy sensing in unstructured field environments

Abstract

To address the challenges of insufficient sensor stability and poor consistency among multi-source data during crop phenotyping in unstructured field environments, this study develops a hardware-software co-optimization framework for wheat canopy sensing based on a four-wheel-drive, high-clearance phenotyping platform. A multi-sensor stabilization device integrated with an ESO-LQR control strategy suppresses pitch disturbances during motion. A ROS-based hierarchical framework coordinates LiDAR, cameras, and inertial sensors, while spatial calibration and timestamp-based software synchronization ensure spatiotemporal consistency. A tightly coupled LiDAR-IMU SLAM algorithm enables centimeter-level 3D reconstruction of farmland. To mitigate terrain effects, a two-stage ground point extraction method integrating verticality and spatial distribution features improves canopy height estimation. Field experiments demonstrate stable platform operation at 1.5 m s⁻¹ while maintain high efficiency and data quality, with a coverage efficiency of 95.2%, retained-point ratio of 85.3%, and an MTF of 0.35 for image clarity. Phenotypic evaluation shows strong agreement between predicted wheat plant height and manual measurements, with R² values of 0.898 and 0.729 and RMSE values of 1.30 cm and 1.64 cm at the jointing and grain-filling stages, respectively. Moreover, at the jointing stage, both the 2D green area index (GAI) and the 3D point-cloud-based canopy coverage exhibit strong consistency with ImageJ-derived results (R² = 0.873 and 0.910). These findings demonstrate that the proposed approach enables stable and efficient acquisition of crop phenotypic information in complex field environments, providing a solid technical foundation for digital field monitoring, data-driven crop management, and intelligent agricultural systems.

Plant phenotyping relevance

小麦キャノピーの表現型取得を目的としたマルチセンサープラットフォーム、データ同期・3D再構成・キャノピー高さ推定を開発し、手動測定やImageJとの一致性を検証しているため、方法が研究の中心である。

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