3DGeo Research Group ESOB
Multi-sensor technology for the optimization of plant production ratings
- Funding: Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV)
- Project Partners: Julius Kühn-Institut (Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Crop and Soil Science), KWS LOCHOW GMBH
- Principle Investigator (PI): Jun.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Höfle
- Project Staff: Martin Hämmerle, Sabrina Marx, Larissa Müller, Fabian Schütt
About the Project
The interdisciplinary research project ESOB aims at developing novel methods for the acquisition of agricultural plant parameters for fast and objective production ratings in the plant breeding process. The University of Heidelberg, Chair of GIScience, LiDAR Research Group, leads the sub-project “Modeling and validation of plant parameters in precision farming using terrestrial laser scanning”.
In addition to the driving aspect of the maximization of production ratings, plant breeding increasingly focuses on the comparison and investigation of differences in plant growth with respect to varying conditions. This research will improve the understanding of the complex plant growth system, which is particularly important to breed species that can cope with strongly changing environmental conditions (e.g. climate change).
New remote sensor technology and geospatial information tools will be applied in order to develop accurate and efficient methods and workflows for the detection of phenotypic variations triggering optimal adaption strategies. Physiological and morphological plant parameters will be assessed e.g. with VIS/NIR/MIR spectroscopy and terrestrial laser scanning (LiDAR). It is expected that a novel optimized process chain for determination of production ratings using multi-sensor systems and 3D geoinformation technology can be established.