<p>Root phenotyping technology is an essential component of modern agriculture and plant science research. Conducting root-related research in a non-destructive manner is crucial for studying plant roots without damaging the plants themselves and allowing for time-series studies. The research aims to validate the efficacy of MISIRoot, an innovative root phenotyping technology, through the implementation of two projects. The first project focuses on the early detection of western corn rootworm, one of the most devastating corn rootworm species in North America, particularly in midwestern corn-growing areas. The second project focuses on the assessment of the soybean nodulation process, which is crucial for nitrogen fixation by Rhizobia living in the nodules on the soybean roots. The current state-of-the-art methods for western corn rootworm and soybean nodulation assessments still require the whole plant to be dug up, which causes irreversible destruction to the plant itself. Although recently developed root phenotyping methods such as minirhizotron, CT, and MRI scanners offer unique advantages in observing plant roots, their potential for field applications is currently limited.</p> <p>Data collection for both projects was carried out using MISIRoot, a minimally invasive plant root phenotyping robot that works in situ within natural soil. The MISIRoot system mainly consists of an industrial-level robotic arm, a mini-size camera with a lighting set, a plant pot holding platform, and image processing software for root recognition and feature extraction. MISIRoot can take high-resolution color images of the roots in soil with minimal disturbance to the root and reconstruct the plant roots' three-dimensional (3D) structure at an accuracy of 0.1 mm.</p> <p>For the first project, the MISIRoot system successfully distinguished the corn plants inoculated with western corn rootworm larvae from the healthy plants before the shoot section of the corn plants revealed significant differences. For the second project, the MISIRoot system successfully demonstrated its ability to differentiate soybean plants with and without nodules.</p>

<p>Plant root phenotyping technologies play an important role in breeding, plant protection, and other plant science research projects. The root phenotyping customers urgently need technologies that are low-cost, in situ, non-destructive to the roots, and suitable for the natural soil environment. Many recently developed root phenotyping methods such as minirhizotron, CT, and MRI scanners have their unique advantages in observing plant roots, but they also have disadvantages and cannot meet all the critical requirements simultaneously. The study in this paper focuses on the development of a new plant root phenotyping robot that is minimally invasive to plants and working in situ inside natural soil, called “MISIRoot”. The MISIRoot system (patent pending) mainly consists of an industrial-level robotic arm, a mini-size camera with lighting set, a plant pot holding platform, and the image processing software for root recognition and feature extraction. MISIRoot can take high-resolution color images of the roots in soil with minimal disturbance to the root and reconstruct the plant roots’ three-dimensional (3D) structure at an accuracy of 0.1 mm. In a test assay, well-watered and drought-stressed groups of corn plants were measured by MISIRoot at V3, V4, and V5 stages. The system successfully acquired the RGB color images of the roots and extracted the 3D points cloud data which showed the locations of the detected roots in the soil. The plants measured by MISIRoot and plants not measured (controls) were carefully compared with Purdue’s Lilly 13-4 Hyperspectral Imaging Facility (reference). No significant differences were found between the two groups of plants at different growth stages. Therefore, it was concluded that MISIRoot measurements had no significant disturbance to the corn plant’s growth.</p>