DATE2022.03.10 #Press Releases
Open source rover for field plant phenotyping
Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
～Measurements can be made easily even in tight spaces
The University of Tokyo
Yokohama City University
Kyoto University
University of Zurich
Summary
Project Associate Professor Wei Guo of The University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services and his colleagues, in a joint research project with Kyoto University, the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and Yokohama City University, have developed a high-speed phenotyping rover for efficient measurement of plant phenotype (Figure).
Phenotyping, which is the measurement of plant growth conditions, is inefficient when done manually, so there is a need to improve efficiency through the use of IT technology. However, there are many situations in which widely used technologies such as drones are not suitable, and equipment is needed that can perform efficient phenotyping even in locations where it is difficult to introduce other technologies, for example, in small areas. This time, we focused on a ground rover as an efficient measurement method that can be introduced in any location and under any conditions. We developed a rover assembled from commercially available parts and conducted test operations.
As a result, we were able to efficiently quantify plant growth conditions from photographs taken by a camera mounted on the vehicle body. Furthermore, the design of this rover has been released as open source hardware so that anyone can freely access it and apply it to any application.
Figure: The newly developed high-speed phenotyping rover in actual operation in the field.
Mr. Ken Kuroki, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Biological Sciences (Iwasaki Laboratory), is participating in this research achievement.
For more information, please visit the website of the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences , The University of Tokyo.