MVS-Pheno: A Portable and Low-Cost Phenotyping Platform for Maize Shoots Using Multiview Stereo 3D Reconstruction

Abstract

Plant phenotyping technologies play important roles in plant research and agriculture. Detailed phenotypes of individual plants can guide the optimization of shoot architecture for plant breeding and are useful to analyze the morphological differences in response to environments for crop cultivation. Accordingly, high-throughput phenotyping technologies for individual plants grown in field conditions are urgently needed, and MVS-Pheno, a portable and low-cost phenotyping platform for individual plants, was developed. The platform is composed of four major components: a semiautomatic multiview stereo (MVS) image acquisition device, a data acquisition console, data processing and phenotype extraction software for maize shoots, and a data management system. The platform's device is detachable and adjustable according to the size of the target shoot. Image sequences for each maize shoot can be captured within 60-120 seconds, yielding 3D point clouds of shoots are reconstructed using MVS-based commercial software, and the phenotypic traits at the organ and individual plant levels are then extracted by the software. The correlation coefficient ( R 2 ) between the extracted and manually measured plant height, leaf width, and leaf area values are 0.99, 0.87, and 0.93, respectively. A data management system has also been developed to store and manage the acquired raw data, reconstructed point clouds, agronomic information, and resulting phenotypic traits. The platform offers an optional solution for high-throughput phenotyping of field-grown plants, which is especially useful for large populations or experiments across many different ecological regions.

Code and data availability

The paper's raw MVS image sequences and reconstructed maize shoot point clouds are not publicly deposited; the Data Availability Statement states they are available only upon request from the authors. The supplementary materials contain only SolidWorks CAD files of the hardware device, not phenotyping data or analysis.

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