A Ground Mobile Robot for Autonomous Terrestrial Laser Scanning-Based Field Phenotyping

TL;DR

This paper presents an autonomous ground robot equipped with LiDAR for efficient, accurate, and automated field phenotyping in plant breeding trials, reducing manual effort and improving data quality.

Contribution

Development of an autonomous robotic system with optimized route planning and precise localization for LiDAR-based field phenotyping in agriculture.

Findings

Achieved localization errors less than 0.6 cm and 0.38° for pose accuracy.

Point cloud registration with approximately 2 cm mean error.

Demonstrated effective autonomous data collection in cotton breeding fields.

Abstract

Traditional field phenotyping methods are often manual, time-consuming, and destructive, posing a challenge for breeding progress. To address this bottleneck, robotics and automation technologies offer efficient sensing tools to monitor field evolution and crop development throughout the season. This study aimed to develop an autonomous ground robotic system for LiDAR-based field phenotyping in plant breeding trials. A Husky platform was equipped with a high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) laser scanner to collect in-field terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data without human intervention. To automate the TLS process, a 3D ray casting analysis was implemented for optimal TLS site planning, and a route optimization algorithm was utilized to minimize travel distance during data collection. The platform was deployed in two cotton breeding fields for evaluation, where it autonomously collected TLS data. The system provided accurate pose information through RTK-GNSS positioning and sensor fusion techniques, with average errors of less than 0.6 cm for location and 0.38$^{\circ}$ for heading. The achieved localization accuracy allowed point cloud registration with mean point errors of approximately 2 cm, comparable to traditional TLS methods that rely on artificial targets and manual sensor deployment. This work presents an autonomous phenotyping platform that facilitates the quantitative assessment of plant traits under field conditions of both large agricultural fields and small breeding trials to contribute to the advancement of plant phenomics and breeding programs.