Implementation of the structural plant simulator AmapSim as a system of graph transformation rules in the language XL. Model comparison and application to Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Teak (Tectona grandis)

PhD topic D10

Implementation of the structural plant simulator AmapSim as a system of graph transformation rules in the language XL. Model comparison and application to Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Teak (Tectona grandis)

Description:

L-systems are parallel string rewriting systems which have been used for simulating the development of the structure of plants (Prusinkiewicz & Lindenmayer 1990). They have been extended to graph-transformation rules which can be used in the programming language XL, an extension of Java (see Kurth 2007). XL code can be executed with the 3-d modelling platform GroIMP (Kniemeyer 2008) and has been used to specify several functional-structural plant models - amongst others, the established models LIGNUM (Perttunen et al. 1996, 2001) and GreenLab (Yan et al. 2004; see Smolenová et al. 2012a). One advantage of using XL is the shortness and transparency of model specifications. Furthermore, XL provides the possibility to speed up the rendering process for virtual vegetation scenes by making use of instantiation rules and structural factorization (Smolenová et al. 2012b).

On the other hand, de Reffye, Barczi and other members of their team at CIRAD (Montpellier) have created AmapSim, a simulator for structural growth of plants with a very precise botanical basis (Barczi et al. 2008). This tool has been used to simulate the growth and architecture of a large range of plants, including crop plants and tropical trees (e.g., Leroy 2005, Leroy et al. 2009). To combine the genericness and transparency of XL code with the botanical background of AmapSim, J.-F. Barczi and W. Kurth have agreed to join efforts to reimplement the AmapSim model in the language XL, using the platform GroIMP.

A related technical aim will be the embedding of GroIMP into an even more generic platform, called Xplo (see Griffon & de Coligny 2012), which will give access to a lot of tools for visualization, testing and combination with other simulation models.

After reimplementing the AmapSim model in XL, it will first be verifyed against the old version. Then a combination of the growth model of AmapSim with the pathtracer-based radiation model of GroIMP shall be realized and tested at the examples of Teak and Sugar Maple trees. Teak, as a tropical tree, has already been modelled with AmapSim (Leroy 2005). For Sugar Maple, as a tree of the temperate zone, there is also a simulation model realized in the alternative tree simulator LIGNUM (Perttunen et al. 2001), which shall be compared with the XL-AmapSim version. Optionally, a comparison with the GreenLab model (also implemented in XL) is also possible.

Applications of highly detailed virtual trees, like those which can be provided by AmapSim, are virtual experiments with agroforestry scenarios or with planting schemes in managed forests, with the aim to maximize yield under certain restrictions and assumptions. The final chapter of the thesis shall address these topics at the example of one or both of the simulated tree species.

Literature:

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Griffon, S.; de Coligny, F. (2012): AMAPstudio: a software suite for plants architecture modelling. In: Kang, M.; Dumont, Y.; Guo, Y. (eds.): 2012 IEEE 4th International Symposium on Plant Growth Modeling, Simulation, Visualization and Applications (PMA12), Shanghai, 31 October - 3 November, 2012, IEEE Press, Beijing, pp. 141-147.
GroIMP: http://www.grogra.de
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