A Review of Optical-Based Three-Dimensional Reconstruction and Multi-Source Fusion for Plant Phenotyping

In the context of the booming development of precision agriculture and plant phenotyping, plant 3D reconstruction technology has become a research hotspot, with widespread applications in plant growth monitoring, pest and disease detection, and smart agricultural equipment. Given the complex geometric and textural characteristics of plants, traditional 2D image analysis methods are difficult to meet the modeling requirements, highlighting the growing importance of 3D reconstruction technology. This paper reviews active vision techniques (such as structured light, time-of-flight, and laser scanning methods), passive vision techniques (such as stereo vision and structure from motion), and deep learning-based 3D reconstruction methods (such as NeRF, CNN, and 3DGS). These technologies enhance crop analysis accuracy from multiple perspectives, provide strong support for agricultural production, and significantly promote the development of the field of plant research.