{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T12:22:00Z","timestamp":1772713320348,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,31]],"date-time":"2024-01-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1706659200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005908","name":"Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["28DE102B18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["28DE102B18"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005908","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Precision agriculture relies on understanding crop growth dynamics and plant responses to short-term changes in abiotic factors. In this technical note, we present and discuss a technical approach for cost-effective, non-invasive, time-lapse crop monitoring that automates the process of deriving further plant parameters, such as biomass, from 3D object information obtained via stereo images in the red, green, and blue (RGB) color space. The novelty of our approach lies in the automated workflow, which includes a reliable automated data pipeline for 3D point cloud reconstruction from dynamic scenes of RGB images with high spatio-temporal resolution. The setup is based on a permanent rigid and calibrated stereo camera installation and was tested over an entire growing season of winter barley at the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF) in Bad Lauchst\u00e4dt, Germany. For this study, radiometrically aligned image pairs were captured several times per day from 3 November 2021 to 28 June 2022. We performed image preselection using a random forest (RF) classifier with a prediction accuracy of 94.2% to eliminate unsuitable, e.g., shadowed, images in advance and obtained 3D object information for 86 records of the time series using the 4D processing option of the Agisoft Metashape software package, achieving mean standard deviations (STDs) of 17.3\u201330.4 mm. Finally, we determined vegetation heights by calculating cloud-to-cloud (C2C) distances between a reference point cloud, computed at the beginning of the time-lapse observation, and the respective point clouds measured in succession with an absolute error of 24.9\u201335.6 mm in depth direction. The calculated growth rates derived from RGB stereo images match the corresponding reference measurements, demonstrating the adequacy of our method in monitoring geometric plant traits, such as vegetation heights and growth spurts during the stand development using automated workflows.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs16030541","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,31]],"date-time":"2024-01-31T09:56:34Z","timestamp":1706694994000},"page":"541","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Automated Workflow for High-Resolution 4D Vegetation Monitoring Using Stereo Vision"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4461-0620","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Kobe","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstra\u00dfe 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2169-8762","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Melanie","family":"Elias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden, Helmholtzstra\u00dfe 10, D-01062 Dresden, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4482-5437","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ines","family":"Merbach","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Stra\u00dfe 4, D-06120 Halle, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9700-0311","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Sch\u00e4dler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Stra\u00dfe 4, D-06120 Halle, Germany"},{"name":"German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstra\u00dfe 4, D-04103 Halle-Leipzig, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3780-8663","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jan","family":"Bumberger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstra\u00dfe 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany"},{"name":"German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstra\u00dfe 4, D-04103 Halle-Leipzig, Germany"},{"name":"Research Data Management-RDM, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstra\u00dfe 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3836-2723","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marion","family":"Pause","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Geo-Information and Land Surveying, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Seminarplatz 2a, D-06846 Dessau, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4746-9143","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hannes","family":"Mollenhauer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Monitoring and Exploration Technologies, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Permoserstra\u00dfe 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"358","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biosystemseng.2012.08.009","article-title":"Twenty five years of remote sensing in precision agriculture: Key advances and remaining knowledge gaps","volume":"114","author":"Mulla","year":"2013","journal-title":"Biosyst. 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