Research progress in multi-source and multi-scale intelligent sensing technologies and equipment for crop phenotyping

Crop phenotyping serves as a fundamental basis for crop breeding, precision cultivation, and smart agriculture. In recent years, it has evolved toward multimodal integration and multiscale coordination. This paper analysed indoor and outdoor phenotyping platforms across diverse application scenarios and reviewed sensing technologies, including RGB imaging, multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, thermal imaging, fluorescence imaging, LiDAR, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The applications of these technologies were summarized in capturing crop morphological traits, physiological status, and biochemical components. The phenotyping acquisition methods and intelligent analytical techniques were also analyzed at different scales such as plant cells, tissues and organs, individual plants, population plot and field. Additionally, the advancements were explored in high-throughput phenotyping technologies and their integration with crop gene function analysis, providing a reference for future phenotyping research.