Plant phenotyping is the practice of measuring, tracking and observing plant traits through sensors, imaging technologies or other instrumentation.
Current imaging techniques to reveal plant phenotypes include color (RGB), hyperspectral imaging and thermal imaging. The best approach depends on the use case, environment and required sensor payload; each has its own advantages.
What are Plant phenotyping sensors?
Plant phenotyping sensors capture and quantify complex traits related to growth, yield, and adaptation to various biotic or abiotic stresses that are essential for genetic crop improvement. These data serve as the foundation for modern breeding strategies and genomics research for these traits.
There is a wide range of wavelength imaging techniques available to examine plant phenomics, such as visible, fluorescence, thermal and near-infrared (NIR). Visible and fluorescence imaging have been successfully employed for assessing shoot biomass and growth patterns at 2D (individual leaves to canopy scale), while thermal imaging mainly serves to detect water status within plants.
NIR and spectral reflectance imaging are promising technologies for high-throughput screening in plant breeding. They can reveal characteristics of plants at various wavelengths, which have been found to correlate with various structural, chemical and functional traits of species.
Infrared imaging spectroscopy is one of the most promising technologies for plant phenotyping and characterisation, as it provides detailed information about plants. With a spectral range from 780 nm to 1000 mm, this technique can capture many useful facts about plants.
Phenotyping plant traits requires high-sensitivity sensors with accurate resolutions. These must be combined with physical properties, depth knowledge, reliable software and image analysis pipelines for accurate measurements of phenotypes.
How can Plant phenotyping sensors help you?
Plant phenotyping is the study of how plants develop over time, which can be used to predict crop growth, yield and quality. This is accomplished using various sensors designed to detect and measure important phenotyping parameters.
These sensor technologies enable quick and accurate plant phenotyping parameters on the field level in just minutes. Furthermore, they capture high-quality image data that can be applied across a variety of platforms.
Plant phenotyping studies employ various sensors, such as visual spectrum image sensors, infrared image sensors, hyperspectral image sensors and multispectral image sensors. These instruments capture information about plants for various purposes like measuring plant height or estimating NDVI data; they may even help detect disease symptoms.
These sensors have some limitations, such as being affected by changing light conditions and not providing all of the essential information about a plant. However, advances are being made to overcome these drawbacks and provide more detailed data on plants.
Another popular method for collecting plant phenotyping data involves using a digital image sensor in combination with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). UAVs are capable of taking pictures and providing large amounts of sensing data that can be utilized in plant phenotyping studies.
What are the different Plant phenotyping sensors?
Plant phenotyping sensors offer valuable data about plant environment and growth patterns. Furthermore, they may be employed to detect plant diseases.
Different sensors have been developed for plant phenotyping measurement, such as visual spectrum image sensors, thermal infrared sensors and hyperspectral imaging systems. These instruments can provide a range of plant parameters like height, stalk length, stem diameter and leaf length/width/area/angle.
Plant phenotyping data collected by these sensors must be managed and stored for analysis. To do this, a database management system (DBMS) is necessary.
Visible spectrum image sensors have become increasingly commonplace in high-throughput plant phenotyping studies due to their simplicity and availability [22]. As these sensors continue to develop technical parameters such as light sensitivity, image resolution, and focus ability year after year, their advantages become greater and greater.
However, they are limited to visual spectral bands and may miss some spectrum information like infrared spectra. Therefore, a variety of sensors is necessary for collecting accurate plant data efficiently.
In addition to traditional sensors, there are now new types of plant phenotyping sensors on the market. These new sensors offer more plant data such as water content, soil temperature and nutrient status.
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