{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T07:12:54Z","timestamp":1774941174830,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,11]],"date-time":"2020-06-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1591833600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000268","name":"Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BB\/L026848\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/L026848\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000268","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000268","name":"Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BB\/S020551\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/S020551\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000268","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000268","name":"Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BB\/T001437\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/T001437\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000268","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000268","name":"Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BB\/P026834\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/P026834\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000268","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000268","name":"Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["BB\/M008770\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BB\/M008770\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000268","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Future Food Beacon of Excellence","award":["MakerSpace"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MakerSpace"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>High-throughput plant phenotyping in controlled environments (growth chambers and glasshouses) is often delivered via large, expensive installations, leading to limited access and the increased relevance of \u201caffordable phenotyping\u201d solutions. We present two robot vectors for automated plant phenotyping under controlled conditions. Using 3D-printed components and readily-available hardware and electronic components, these designs are inexpensive, flexible and easily modified to multiple tasks. We present a design for a thermal imaging robot for high-precision time-lapse imaging of canopies and a Plate Imager for high-throughput phenotyping of roots and shoots of plants grown on media plates. Phenotyping in controlled conditions requires multi-position spatial and temporal monitoring of environmental conditions. We also present a low-cost sensor platform for environmental monitoring based on inexpensive sensors, microcontrollers and internet-of-things (IoT) protocols.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20113319","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,15]],"date-time":"2020-06-15T05:56:27Z","timestamp":1592200587000},"page":"3319","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Low-Cost Automated Vectors and Modular Environmental Sensors for Plant Phenotyping"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Stuart A.","family":"Bagley","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Phenomics Group, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, UK"}]},{"given":"Jonathan A.","family":"Atkinson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, UK"}]},{"given":"Henry","family":"Hunt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6323-6059","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael H.","family":"Wilson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, UK"}]},{"given":"Tony P.","family":"Pridmore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4246-4909","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Darren M.","family":"Wells","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Integrated Phenomics Group, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Sutton Bonington LE12 5RD, UK"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"813","DOI":"10.1071\/FPv39n11_IN","article-title":"Phenotyping plants: Genes, phenes and machines","volume":"39","author":"Pieruschka","year":"2012","journal-title":"Funct. Plant. Biol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pieruschka, R., and Schurr, U. (2020, May 28). Plant Phenotyping: Past, Present, and Future. Available online: https:\/\/spj.sciencemag.org\/plantphenomics\/2019\/7507131\/.","DOI":"10.34133\/2019\/7507131"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5429","DOI":"10.1093\/jxb\/erv345","article-title":"Plant phenomics and the need for physiological phenotyping across scales to narrow the genotype-to-phenotype knowledge gap","volume":"66","author":"Svensgaard","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Exp. Bot."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Atkinson, J.A., Jackson, R.J., Bentley, A.R., Ober, E., and Wells, D.M. (2018). Field Phenotyping for the future. Annual Plant Reviews Online, American Cancer Society.","DOI":"10.1002\/9781119312994.apr0651"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1186\/s13007-015-0056-8","article-title":"Plant phenotyping: From bean weighing to image analysis","volume":"11","author":"Walter","year":"2015","journal-title":"Plant. Methods"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/j.plantsci.2018.06.015","article-title":"What is cost-efficient phenotyping? Optimizing costs for different scenarios","volume":"282","author":"Reynolds","year":"2019","journal-title":"Plant. Sci."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"204","DOI":"10.1111\/tpj.13472","article-title":"Phenotiki: An open software and hardware platform for affordable and easy image-based phenotyping of rosette-shaped plants","volume":"90","author":"Minervini","year":"2017","journal-title":"Plant. J."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pbi.2015.02.006","article-title":"Lights, camera, action: High-throughput plant phenotyping is ready for a close-up","volume":"24","author":"Fahlgren","year":"2015","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Plant. Biol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"267","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-arplant-050312-120137","article-title":"Future scenarios for plant Phenotyping","volume":"64","author":"Fiorani","year":"2013","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Plant. Biol."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"(2019, December 19). V-SlotTM Belt & Pinion Example Build. Available online: https:\/\/openbuilds.com\/builds\/v-slot%E2%84%A2-belt-pinion-example-build.97\/."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tessmer, O.L., Jiao, Y., Cruz, J.A., Kramer, D.M., and Chen, J. (2013). Functional approach to high-throughput plant growth analysis. BMC Syst. Biol., 7.","DOI":"10.1186\/1752-0509-7-S6-S17"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"970","DOI":"10.1071\/FP09182","article-title":"A new screening method for osmotic component of salinity tolerance in cereals using infrared thermography","volume":"36","author":"Sirault","year":"2009","journal-title":"Funct. Plant. Biol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.1007\/s10658-011-9878-z","article-title":"Recent advances in sensing plant diseases for precision crop protection","volume":"133","author":"Mahlein","year":"2012","journal-title":"Eur. J. Plant. Pathol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Badamasi, Y.A. (October, January 29). The working principle of an Arduino. Proceedings of the 2014 11th International Conference on Electronics, Computer and Computation (ICECCO), Abuja, Nigeria.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICECCO.2014.6997578"},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"(2019, December 19). StepStick\u2014RepRap. Available online: https:\/\/reprap.org\/wiki\/StepStick."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"(2019, December 19). Arduino\u2014Software. Available online: https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/en\/main\/software."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"(2019, December 19). AccelStepper: AccelStepper Library for Arduino. Available online: https:\/\/www.airspayce.com\/mikem\/arduino\/AccelStepper\/index.html."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Travis, J., and Kring, J. (2007). LabVIEW for Everyone: Graphical Programming Made Easy and Fun, Prentice Hall."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"518","DOI":"10.1002\/mrd.22489","article-title":"The ImageJ ecosystem: An open platform for biomedical image analysis","volume":"82","author":"Schindelin","year":"2015","journal-title":"Mol. Reprod. Dev."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"676","DOI":"10.1038\/nmeth.2019","article-title":"Fiji: An open-source platform for biological-image analysis","volume":"9","author":"Schindelin","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nat. Methods"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"French, A.P., Wells, D.M., Everitt, N.M., and Pridmore, T.P. (2012). High-throughput quantification of root growth. Measuring Roots: An Updated Approach, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-22067-8_7"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1337","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/btr126","article-title":"High-throughput feature counting and measurement of roots","volume":"27","author":"Naeem","year":"2011","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1802","DOI":"10.1104\/pp.113.221531","article-title":"RootNav: Navigating images of complex root architectures","volume":"162","author":"Pound","year":"2013","journal-title":"Plant. Physiol."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1093\/gigascience\/giz123","article-title":"RootNav 2.0: Deep learning for automatic navigation of complex plant root architectures","volume":"8","author":"Yasrab","year":"2019","journal-title":"GigaScience"},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Niggl, L. (2019, December 20). TeensyStep. Available online: https:\/\/luni64.github.io\/TeensyStep\/."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1517","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2011.0291","article-title":"Recovering the dynamics of root growth and development using novel image acquisition and analysis methods","volume":"367","author":"Wells","year":"2012","journal-title":"Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Haase, J., Alahmad, M., Nishi, H., Ploennigs, J., and Tsang, K.-F. (2016, January 18\u201321). The IOT mediated built environment: A brief survey. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE 14th International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), Poitiers, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/INDIN.2016.7819322"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biosystemseng.2017.09.007","article-title":"Internet of things in agriculture, recent advances and future challenges","volume":"164","author":"Tzounis","year":"2017","journal-title":"Biosyst. Eng."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2014.2312291","article-title":"Research directions for the internet of things","volume":"1","author":"Stankovic","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Maier, A., Sharp, A., and Vagapov, Y. (2017). Comparative analysis and practical implementation of the ESP32 microcontroller module for the internet of things. Internet Technol. Appl., 143\u2013148.","DOI":"10.1109\/ITECHA.2017.8101926"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"(2020, May 07). BME680. Available online: https:\/\/www.bosch-sensortec.com\/products\/environmental-sensors\/gas-sensors-bme680\/."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"(2020, June 02). BME280. Available online: https:\/\/www.bosch-sensortec.com\/products\/environmental-sensors\/humidity-sensors-bme280\/."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2020, June 02). Temperature and Humidity Wireless Data Logger. Available online: https:\/\/www.omega.co.uk\/pptst\/om-el-wifi_series.html."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"588","DOI":"10.1111\/nph.15385","article-title":"Dealing with multi-source and multi-scale information in plant phenomics: The ontology-driven Phenotyping Hybrid Information System","volume":"221","author":"Neveu","year":"2018","journal-title":"New Phytol."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.1016\/j.coisb.2017.07.002","article-title":"Unlocking the potential of plant phenotyping data through integration and data-driven approaches","volume":"4","author":"Coppens","year":"2017","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Syst. Biol."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2014.07.059","article-title":"Wireless sensor network system design using raspberry Pi and arduino for environmental monitoring applications","volume":"34","author":"Ferdoush","year":"2014","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/11\/3319\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:37:42Z","timestamp":1760175462000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/11\/3319"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,11]]},"references-count":36,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6]]}},"alternative-id":["s20113319"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s20113319","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,11]]}}}