Multi-Image Super Resolution Framework for Detection and Analysis of Plant Roots

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-image super resolution framework using deep learning to improve underground plant root imaging, enabling better analysis of root traits despite challenging subterranean conditions.

Contribution

It presents a novel MISR approach tailored for underground root imaging, with a synthetic dataset for training and outperforming existing super resolution methods.

Findings

Achieved 2.3% reduction in BRISQUE score, indicating improved image quality.

Enhanced accuracy in estimating root traits like root hair density.

Outperformed state-of-the-art super resolution baselines.

Abstract

Understanding plant root systems is critical for advancing research in soil-plant interactions, nutrient uptake, and overall plant health. However, accurate imaging of roots in subterranean environments remains a persistent challenge due to adverse conditions such as occlusion, varying soil moisture, and inherently low contrast, which limit the effectiveness of conventional vision-based approaches. In this work, we propose a novel underground imaging system that captures multiple overlapping views of plant roots and integrates a deep learning-based Multi-Image Super Resolution (MISR) framework designed to enhance root visibility and detail. To train and evaluate our approach, we construct a synthetic dataset that simulates realistic underground imaging scenarios, incorporating key environmental factors that affect image quality. Our proposed MISR algorithm leverages spatial redundancy across views to reconstruct high-resolution images with improved structural fidelity and visual clarity. Quantitative evaluations show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art super resolution baselines, achieving a 2.3 percent reduction in BRISQUE, indicating improved image quality with the same CLIP-IQA score, thereby enabling enhanced phenotypic analysis of root systems. This, in turn, facilitates accurate estimation of critical root traits, including root hair count and root hair density. The proposed framework presents a promising direction for robust automatic underground plant root imaging and trait quantification for agricultural and ecological research.