Modelling Plant Variation Through Growth

This paper introduces a method for creating naturally varied plants from a given basic plant model. Previous techniques create variation in plants by introducing local randomness to the plant model’s description. However, randomness is restricted by the model’s parameterization and lack of correlation between local features making varying global properties (e.g. branch and stem curvature) difficult. We present a biologically-based method which mimics the underpinnings of variation in real plants. This method uses a feedback control system to simulate the biological growth mechanism by which a plant naturally responds to environmental factors. We show that our technique creates more realistically varied models by modelling growth responses to stimuli, and provides a method for quickly creating numerous similar models, none of which are exactly alike.