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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
REVIEW (Open Access)

Field Scanalyzer: An automated robotic field phenotyping platform for detailed crop monitoring

Nicolas Virlet A , Kasra Sabermanesh A , Pouria Sadeghi-Tehran A and Malcolm J. Hawkesford A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Plant Biology and Crop Science, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ, UK.

B Corresponding author. Email: malcolm.hawkesford@rothamsted.ac.uk

Functional Plant Biology 44(1) 143-153 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP16163
Submitted: 28 April 2016  Accepted: 2 September 2016   Published: 2 November 2016

Journal Compilation © Published Open Access CC BY 2017 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

Current approaches to field phenotyping are laborious or permit the use of only a few sensors at a time. In an effort to overcome this, a fully automated robotic field phenotyping platform with a dedicated sensor array that may be accurately positioned in three dimensions and mounted on fixed rails has been established, to facilitate continual and high-throughput monitoring of crop performance. Employed sensors comprise of high-resolution visible, chlorophyll fluorescence and thermal infrared cameras, two hyperspectral imagers and dual 3D laser scanners. The sensor array facilitates specific growth measurements and identification of key growth stages with dense temporal and spectral resolution. Together, this platform produces a detailed description of canopy development across the crops entire lifecycle, with a high-degree of accuracy and reproducibility.

Additional keywords: data processing, computer vision, field scanalyzer, nitrogen, phenomics, scanalyzer.


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