A looming question that must be solved before robotic plant phenotyping capabilities can have significant impact to crop improvement programs is scalability. Current field phenotyping systems rely on exhaustive coverage of a breeding experiment. This works well in relatively small proof-of-concept trials, but will fail as the size of the field gets larger.

Abstract: Many cyber-physical systems(CPS) deployed in a number of applications ranging from airport security systems and transportation systems to health-care and manufacturing rely on a wide variety of sensors for prediction and control. In many of these systems, acquisition of information requires the deployment and activation of physical sensors which can result in increased expense or delay.