Computer vision and IoT based plant phenotyping and growth monitoring with 3D point clouds

Abstract

Computer vision and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offer robust solutions for plant phenotyping, but traditional mainstream segmentation methods often fail in high-density plantings with overlapping foliage. This study introduces an integrated phenotyping system combining automated data capture and high-temporal RGB-D imaging using off-the-shelf hardware (Intel RealSense D435 and Raspberry Pi) to generate 3D point clouds of lettuce under controlled greenhouse conditions. While recent agricultural applications have shown limited success and required domain-specific adaptations, Segment Anything Model (SAM) and FastSAM were demonstrated to achieve exceptional zero-shot segmentation performance for individual lettuce plants in high-density arrangements without additional training. This capability effectively addresses the traditional challenges of species-specific parameter tuning and extensive training data requirements and fine-tuning. By mapping 2D segmentation masks to corresponding 3D point clouds, the system accurately extracted key phenotypic traits, namely plant height, length, and width, from which area and volume were subsequently estimated, showing strong correlations with manual measurements for Rex and Rouxai lettuce cultivars. This high-temporal, non-destructive monitoring provided unique insights into plant growth dynamics. The study highlights distinct growth patterns among these cultivars, underscoring the importance of tailored phenotyping approaches to optimise crop management strategies. By addressing the limitations of existing phenotyping methods, this work advances precision agriculture technologies, offering a cost-effective and efficient solution for monitoring dynamic crop growth with potential applications across various crops and growing conditions.

Plant phenotyping relevance

RGB-D画像、3D点群、セグメンテーションを統合して植物形質を抽出するフェノタイピングシステムの開発・評価が中心であり、手動測定との相関検証も行っているため。

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