Abstract
No-tillage seeding has become an important approach to improve crop productivity, which needs colters of high performance to cut the root-stubble-soil composite. However, the difficulty of maize root-stubbles three-dimensional (3D) modeling hinders finite element (FE) simulation to improve development efficiency of such colters because of maize root system complexity and opaque nature of the soil. Fortunately, the non-destructive 3D geometric model of the maize root-stubble in-situ can be established via X-ray computed tomography (CT) following by a systematic procedure. The whole procedure includes CT scanning of the maize root-stubble-soil composite sample, image reconstruction via filtered back-projection (FBP) with the Hanning filter, segmentation of root-stubble via a variational level set method, and post-processing via morphological operations. The 3D reconstruction model of the maize root-stubble in-situ presents a complete, complex and in-situ geometrical morphology, which cannot be realized via other methods, including the destructive modelling after washing via CT. This study is the first to build a 3D geometric model of a maize root-stubble in-situ via CT, which opens up new possibilities for simulation of root-stubble-soil cutting using FEM, and much other research related to plant root-stubbles. Keywords: maize root-stubble, non-destructive modeling, X-ray computed tomography, variational level set method DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20201303.5268 Citation: Zhao X, Xing L Y, Shen S F, Liu J M, Zhang D X. Non-destructive 3D geometric modeling of maize root-stubble in-situ via X-ray computed tomography. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(3): 174–179.
Highlights
No-tillage seeding plays a crucial role in the increase of crop production via leaving residue cover to protect the field, but which causes plugging of seeders
The most common method used to establish the 3D geometric model of a root-stubble is invasive and destructive, such as root-stubble shovelomics, including root-stubble washing, manual measurement and extremely simplified modeling, such as the literate[3]. Such methods all result in root breakage, position and pose change during the washing process, as well as severe inexactness during simplified modeling, due to complexity and fragile of dried roots, such inaccurate geometric modeling of Received data: 2019-07-08 Accepted data: 2020-03-20 Biographies: Luyu Xing, Postgraduate, research interests: no-till planting techniques and image processing, Email: 2056846657@qq.com; Shifan Shen, Postgraduate, research interests: bionic engineering, Email: 605941959@qq.com
The sample was immediately sealed in a vacuum-sealed bag until computed tomography (CT) scanning
Summary
No-tillage seeding plays a crucial role in the increase of crop production via leaving residue cover to protect the field, but which causes plugging of seeders. The development of high performance colters needs FEM simulation to analyze dynamic cutting problems of colters on the root-stubble-soil composite regarding material failure[2]. Such FE simulations cannot be conducted effectively so far because the accurate 3D geometric model of maize root-stubble is unable to be established due to root system complexity and opaque nature of the soil. The most common method used to establish the 3D geometric model of a root-stubble is invasive and destructive, such as root-stubble shovelomics, including root-stubble washing, manual measurement and extremely simplified modeling, such as the literate[3] Such methods all result in root breakage, position and pose change during the washing process, as well as severe inexactness during simplified modeling, due to complexity and fragile of dried roots, such inaccurate geometric modeling of the root-stubble make the validity of such FE cutting simulation to be problematic
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