Research On The Method Of Modeling For Virtual Plant Morphology Based On L-system

Virtual plant is focused on the computer technology and is an interdisciplinary research,including botany, ecology, applied mathematics, information technology, computer science andvisualization and so on. Its study object is individual or colony of plants. It studied geometricalforms and topology structure during plant growth and development, and simulated these features.Eventually, it can be visualized in three dimension space by quantifying its biologicalcharacteristics. In recent years, more people pay their attentions to this research, in which itmakes the research area to come in a broad space for development from a narrow margin andbecomes a focused issue of many scholars and researchers.Virtual plant is very important for digital or intellectual agriculture, but also a significantpart for agricultural informatization. With the development of biological technology and theadvancement of the computer graphic, the research of virtual plant has been a broad developmentand application in digital agriculture, meanwhile it has also provided a strong support forcomputational biology; At the same time, many fields for the purpose of visual effects, such asbusiness, education, computer-aided design, entertainment, landscape design, has been a rapiddevelopment. Therefore, based on the method for modeling virtual plant, the nature plants can berecurred by effective simulation for its morphology. This is helpful to enrich the method formodeling virtual plants and significant in its practice and study.Based on the method of L-system, we have developed biological experimental data andapplied them, then proposed that the research was the method for modeling virtual plant ofmorphology. We get more ideal results in which we use Logistic growth equation to simulate thedynamic growth and B-spline curves to compute flexuous deformation of plant. Specifically, thisresearch mainly consists of the following five aspects:1. The research and analysis of the method for modeling virtual plant morphology deeplyRelying on Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, we deep studied thetheory basis and representing method for modeling virtual plant form by analyzing the features of natural plant, and eventually established the research directions clearly.2. L-system and modeling virtual plant morphologyL-system is a parallel character rewriting system and more advanced than other methods inthe representation of the virtual plant morphology. Therefore, we use L-system to representgeometrical forms and topology structure of plants and construct their phenotype morphology.Then combined with the actual experimental data of biology, the process of plant growth isrecurred. This not only enriches and develops L-system, but also supports the biological studiesin some degree.3. Representation of the bending plant branches in three dimension spaceB-spline curve is smoothly continuous, locally controllable, and so on. Thus, according tothe theory and method of L-system, the natural characteristic of the plant is recurred in which thebending form of plant branches is represented by B-spline curve in three dimension space. Thenthe users are convenient to observe and analyze the phenotypic characteristics of plants fromdifferent angles and a more realistic stereoeffect is showed.4. Dynamic model and quantitative calculation for the process of plant growthIt uses Logistic equation to quantify the features of plant growth and simulate them indynamic process of plants according to the statistical characteristics of plant growth. Based onL-system, it calculates the plant height and branch length relying on plant growth node as itsinitial state. At the last, we have completed the simulation of virtual plant morphology combinedwith database technology to design dynamic data structures and algorithms.5. Experimental simulation and applicationThe paper designs corresponding program modules and data structures with object-orienteddesign methods. It simulates different plant morphology combined with improved L-systemmethods and database technology. It also takes the example of common soybean to do somecorresponding experimental simulation.This paper extends the basic theory and application of L-system and enriches the method ofmodeling virtual plant. It is innovative in the aspects of quantitative calculation and dynamicsimulation for visualizing in plant growth etc. in some degree.