Plant Root System Simulation Rresearch Based On Dynamic Growth Model

Virtual plant is computer simulation of the structural development and growth of plants in 3-D spaces by virtual reality technique. This technique defines the plant unit as the objective and has the function of visualization. Today virtual plant techniques are divided into two types. The first ignores ecophysiological models of plants to simulate appearances of plants for business and amusement. The second one simulates real growth processes of plants, emphasizes their reality of botany theory and applies mostly to research and education territory of agronomy and forestry. However, current studies of virtual plant techniques are too much focused on realistic plant image synthesis to earn the best visual effects, while studies which integrate eco-physiological model with morphogenetic model are few and studies on root systems of virtual plants are less especially. As a result, most root system simulation techniques can only create root system figures by some simple morphogenetic models, but they cannot utilize eco-physiological models of root systems to describe real growth rules of root systems and provide necessary data for root system studies else. So they are not fit for the agronomy and forestry studies.In this paper, some researches and discussions focus on the dynamic growth model of plants root system simulation techniques. On the basis of the correlative theory research, a new means is put forward that combine the improved L-system and the dynamic data structure to build topological structures of root systems and it can compute necessary data for root system studies by the pipe model. Finally, a perfect combination of plant growth model and morphogenetic model is fulfilled.Firstly, various theories and means about virtual plants are studied and compared. Based on plant growth models, virtual plant growth can be realized by means of computer. According to the function and simulation courses of virtual plants, there are two sorts of plant growth models, one is growthmechanistic model and another is visualization model. Growthmechanistic model can compute all data according to all sorts of initial information and environmental factors of a plant. It is composed of the eco-physiological model and the morphogenetic model. The first include many growth mechanism models. The second one can provide morphological information of plants. It includes mostly fractal such as IFS, partial system, L-system and stochastic process such as dual-scale automaton etc. Growthmechanistic model and visualization model interact to form growthmechanistic model that can compute growth status of a plant in every growth phase. Visualization model utilizes 2-D or 3-D images to show the growth course of a plant by means of computer graphics.Secondly, eco-physiological characters of plant root systems are studied and the dynamic growth model of winter wheat is analyzed carefully in the paper. The root system growth of a plant...