Abstract
The global issue of crop lodging has significant, negative impacts on crop quality and supply. Crop lodging refers to the structural failure of crops due to external (e.g., rain, wind) and internal loading (e.g., grain weight). To reduce crop lodging, crops with high lodging resistance must be developed through selective breeding. However, numerous confounding factors make it difficult to evaluate lodging resistance accurately and efficiently. Several devices and methods have been developed to evaluate lodging resistance. Unfortunately, most of these devices are low throughput and only allow a limited number of plants to be tested at a time. More rapid evaluations are required to enable more efficient and effective selective breeding processes.
This thesis presents a novel device known as the SOCEM (Stiffness of Crops Extrapolation Machine) that can determine the lodging resistance of grain crops in a high throughput manner. The SOCEM is able to evaluate entire experimental plots in just a few minutes. The device utilizes a novel mathematical crop model to account for nonlinearities and interactions within mechanobiological systems. The model is derived and validated using physical and finite-element model experiments and its most effective range is highlighted.