Research Article | Open Access
Volume 2023 |Article ID 0066 | https://doi.org/10.34133/plantphenomics.0066

Application of Improved UNet and EnglightenGAN for Segmentation and Reconstruction of In Situ Roots

Qiushi Yu,1,3 Jingqi Wang,1,3 Hui Tang,1 Jiaxi Zhang,1 Wenjie Zhang,1 Liantao Liu ,2 and Nan Wang 1

1College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hebei Agricultural University, 071000, Baoding, China
2College of Agronomy, Hebei Agricultural University, 071000, Baoding, China
3These authors contributed equally to this work

Received 
13 Mar 2023
Accepted 
14 Jun 2023
Published
06 Jul 2023

Abstract

The root is an important organ for crops to absorb water and nutrients. Complete and accurate acquisition of root phenotype information is important in root phenomics research. The in situ root research method can obtain root images without destroying the roots. In the image, some of the roots are vulnerable to soil shading, which severely fractures the root system and diminishes its structural integrity. The methods of ensuring the integrity of in situ root identification and establishing in situ root image phenotypic restoration remain to be explored. Therefore, based on the in situ root image of cotton, this study proposes a root segmentation and reconstruction strategy, improves the UNet model, and achieves precise segmentation. It also adjusts the weight parameters of EnlightenGAN to achieve complete reconstruction and employs transfer learning to implement enhanced segmentation using the results of the former two. The research results show that the improved UNet model has an accuracy of 99.2%, mIOU of 87.03%, and F1 of 92.63%. The root reconstructed by EnlightenGAN after direct segmentation has an effective reconstruction ratio of 92.46%. This study enables a transition from supervised to unsupervised training of root system reconstruction by designing a combination strategy of segmentation and reconstruction network. It achieves the integrity restoration of in situ root system pictures and offers a fresh approach to studying the phenotypic of in situ root systems, also realizes the restoration of the integrity of the in situ root image, and provides a new method for in situ root phenotype study.

© 2019-2023   Plant Phenomics. All rights Reserved.  ISSN 2643-6515.

Back to top