PlantEye REST API – integrate 3D & Multispec in any Phenotyping project
Posted on 14 April 2020 in PlantEye by Stefan Schwartz 
The past years I have been discussing many phenotyping projects. It became very clear to me that there is a need for “easy to integrate” sensors in phenotyping platforms. Either to keep existing platforms up to date with the latest technologies or to develop powerful new ones.
In this blog I explain
- Why the market wants sensors which can be easily integrated
- How you gain full control of the PlantEye and its data
- Why we used the REST API industry standard to fulfill this need
Need for easy phenotyping sensor integration
We helped many clients implementing PlantEye in their own phenotyping projects. During these installations we talked to a lot of professionals who need plant measurements in all kinds of environments.
From scientists and breeders developing phenotyping machines to engineers building harvesters or other production machines. The message they have is often the same: We need high quality plant sensors we can easily integrate in our (existing) platforms or robotic systems. For this they need sensors on which they have full control without needing too much inside technical knowledge.
To solve this problem all machines need to be able to communicate with each other to easily share important information. The REST API is an industry standard to facilitate this. Therefore we developed a REST API for PlantEye which enables you to easily integrate the sensor to most platforms like:
- Conveyors for phenotyping
- Gantries for field or greenhouse phenotyping
- Autonomous vehicles for production or field trials
- Harvesters
- Production & Quality control systems
Latest industry standards
In the past, machine builders introduced many integration interfaces but most were lacking defined protocols and had complex architectures. To overcome these problems they shifted their focus on independent intelligent systems, like PlantEye, that easily communicate with each other. For this they used open industry standards:
- Ethernet for communication
- HTTP as a standard and well known protocol
- REST protocol on top of HTTP for complex yet flexible exchange of data between intelligent systems
- API documentation for easy integration of the independent intelligent system
Full control of PlantEye Sensor
The phenotyping market has shown its need for such flexible sensors. Therefore we included the REST API in the new firmware of PlantEye F500.
- Full control of input (Commands) and output (Data & Status)
- PUT, GET and POST command with various inputs
- Interactive documentation using standard protocols such as Postman, ReDoc that every developer knows
PlantEye REST API – Interactive documentation
From technical help to phenotyping consulting
At the moment we are still helping a lot of clients with technical implementation. The API helps us to shift the focus even more to consulting our clients on digital plant phenotyping solutions.
We are more than happy to explain the PlantEye and its REST API and advise you on implementing our plant sensors into your projects. Send your question or request and we will help.
Stefan Schwartz
COO Phenospex
During my 12 years of working in plant phenotyping in various companies I always kept the focus on finding the right solution for plant phenotyping solutions so the client can focus on his research.
