A Multi-Sensor UAV Platform: Design, Testing, and Application for High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are broadly used for high-throughput plant phenotyping, yet their long-term use in public-sector research is increasingly challenged by regulatory restrictions and reliance on proprietary platforms. This study presented a regulation-compliant, modular multi-sensor unmanned aerial system (UAS) designed to deliver flexible, high-quality phenotyping data without dependence on restricted ecosystems. A dual-mount, open-architecture payload integrated RGB, multispectral, and thermal sensors, enabling simultaneous acquisition of structural, spectral, and thermal information within a unified workflow. Field validation in a lantana (Lantana camara) breeding trial demonstrated high-precision multi-sensor data fusion and reliable trait extraction. Spatial co-registration achieved centimeter-level accuracy, with alignment errors of 0.88 cm (multispectral) and 3.23 cm (thermal) relative to the RGB reference. UAV-derived canopy height closely matched ground measurements (R2 up to 0.98; RMSE as low as 1.57 cm), while canopy coverage estimates showed consistency across sensing modalities (R2 = 0.99; RMSE = 0.02 m2). Calibrated thermal orthomosaics provided robust canopy temperature estimation (RMSE = 3.13 °C), supporting a quantitative assessment of plant physiological status. Together, these results demonstrate that a regulation-compliant, open-architecture UAV platform can achieve high accuracy in multi-modal phenotyping while maintaining flexibility and cost efficiency. This work demonstrates a scalable and sustainable framework for UAV-based phenotyping, enabling researchers to adapt to evolving regulations while advancing data-driven crop improvement.

Plant phenotyping relevance

植物フェノタイピング用のマルチセンサーUAVプラットフォームを設計・検証し、植物形質の抽出精度を評価しているため、方法が中心的である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe the UAV platform, field trial, and processing pipeline, but contain no public phenotype dataset, imagery deposit, author analysis code, or trained model with an availability statement or URL. The only supplementary item mentioned is a SolidWorks STEP file of the hardware design, which is a

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.