CBM: An IoT enabled LiDAR sensor for in-field crop height and biomass measurements

Phenotypic characterization of crop genotypes is an essential yet challenging aspect of crop management and agriculture research. Digital sensing technologies are rapidly advancing plant phenotyping and speeding-up crop breeding outcomes. However, off-the-shelf sensors might not be fully applicable and suitable for agriculture research due to diversity in crop species and specific need during plant breeding selections. Customized sensing systems with specialized sensor hardware and software architecture provide a powerful and low-cost solution. This study designed and developed a fully integrated Raspberry Pi-based LiDAR sensor named CropBioMass (CBM), enabled by internet of things to provide a complete end-to-end pipeline. The CBM is a low-cost sensor, provides high-throughput seamless data collection in field, small data footprint, injection of data onto the re-mote server, and automated data processing. Phenotypic traits of crop fresh biomass, dry biomass and plant height estimated by CBM data had high correlation with ground truth manual measurements in wheat field trial. The CBM is readily applicable for high-throughput plant phenotyping, crop monitoring and management for precision agricultural applications.