Cotton field population phenotyping analysis based on 3D Gaussian reconstruction and dynamic spatial constraints

Introduction: High-throughput field phenotyping (HTFP) holds great potential for elucidating the relationship between genomes and phenotypes. However, obtaining high-quality three-dimensional point cloud data of field populations and achieving single-plant phenotypic analysis remain challenging. Methods: This study develops an integrated framework for field crop reconstruction based on 3D Gaussian splatting, incorporating a geometry-aware dynamic constraint algorithm to achieve instance segmentation and extract key phenotypic traits of individual plants. Using 3D Gaussian splatting technology, field-scale cotton population modeling is accomplished, generating dense 3D point clouds for regions of interest. Furthermore, the concept of a crop localization domain is proposed, establishing a longitudinal mapping that associates plant positional coordinates with long-term phenotypic attributes. Finally, through a dynamic spatial constraint mechanism, the accuracy and computational efficiency of instance segmentation for crop population point clouds are significantly improved, enabling rapid extraction of individual plant traits such as cotyledon node height, plant height, and leaf area. Results: ) of 0.90, 0.91, and 0.91, respectively. Discussion: The proposed method provides a low-cost solution for high-throughput field phenotypic analysis of field cotton and improves the efficiency of cotton breeding.