Farms and Farm Machinery – September 2019

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PRODUCT NEWS

E

quipped with cutting-edge technologies, controlled by a

joystick and measuring 1.93m high, the phenoMobile Lite

might look a little out of place in most farmers’ sheds.

But the machine, the product of 11 years of Research and

Development by the CSIRO-led node of the Australian Plant

Phenomics Facility (APPF), could become a more common sight

on Australian farms in near future, as CSIRO seeks a partner to

help bring the product to a wider market.

It comes as phenotyping, the process of measuring the traits of

a plant, becomes more common on farms worldwide as farmers

try to increase their yield in more marginal environmental

conditions.

Xavier Sirault, the director of the High Resolution Plant

Phenomics Centre at CSIRO, tells Farms & Farm Machinery

that phenotyping may include assessing a plant’s chemical

composition – such as identifying sugar cane plants with more

sugar content, or grains with higher protein levels – or a plant’s

morphological characteristics, such as optimising plant height,

or distribution of leaf area to capture more light.

But it can also look at how a plant interacts with the

environment – such as under a current CSIRO project, where the

organisation is aiming to identify the genes that help plants use

water more efficiently.

“To do this we are creating plant populations, crossing them

together and planting them in different locations,” Sirault says.

“A machine such as the phenoMobile Lite allows you to

quantify how each cross is behaving in a certain set of

conditions. If this behaviour is superior to the average of all

the crosses, you have got genes of interest – and we try to

then isolate these genes to breed them into adapted varieties

in Australia.”

But the process of measuring the plants in these trials is an

intensive one – with a variety of different aspects of the plant

being measured at any one time.

“Usually hundreds to thousands of measurements are

performed to select individuals or to identify regions of the

genome that have genes of interest,” Sirault says.

“If you look at a thousand plots, today with our machine

it would probably take you a couple of hours to measure a

number of traits simultaneously – that is, to get quantification of

plant biomass, greenness, height for each of these plots.

“It would otherwise take 10 people all day to do the same

amount of work... just to harvest the plant and measure

greenness and plant height, then the next week you are going to

require those 10 people to manually process the material, and

then in three weeks’ time you will finally get the information that

you are looking for.”

The gain in efficiency and repeatability, Sirault says, could cut

the amount of time it takes to produce a new seed variety with

beneficial genetic combinations, in particular if the technology is

used at the early stages of a breeding program.

“Instead of having a person measuring plant traits a few times

during the growing season, we are using robots to do it on a

regular basis (weekly or daily) and screen many, many more

plants, so that we know when we have identified something

special,” he says.

What makes the phenoMobile Lite more efficient today is

its light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, which

uses light pulses to generate a precise 3D reconstruction of

a crop that researchers can analyse on a cloud-based data

visualisation platform.

However Sirault says up to 50kg of additional equipment

can be added to the vehicle, including commercially available

sensors such as the Green Seeker spectral sensor, used to

assess the nitrogen content of plants.

Measuring 2.7m long and 2.4m wide and weighing about

600kg, the phenoMobile Lite can travel at a top speed of 6km

per hour, with the operator walking behind it as it moves.

There are plans to eventually integrate other sensors into the

phenoMobile, which may include portable X-Ray technologies

and infared vision, to better identify how a plant is using water,

or accumulating biomass, as well as potentially an automated

control system – allowing the vehicle to move autonomously

along tramlines similar to those used in precision agriculture.

CSIRO research scientist and HRPPC assistant director Michael

Schaefer says experience in automated control is one of the

things he is hoping a future commercialisation partner can bring

to the phenoMobile Lite.

“One of the most important things we are looking for

in a partner is someone who has got a commitment to

manufacturing high quality products and ready to provide

post-sale services for the ongoing maintenance of the platform

because that is obviously a big issue,” he says.

“You need the production ability – someone who is going to

be able to produce these vehicles – and the financial stability

to keep that platform running,” he added, saying that there was

currently a demand for at least 15 of the machines.

“From then on the platforms could be produced as needed not

only for plant phenotyping, but also other applications, such as

forestry, farming systems and mining.”

“So that is what we are looking at, and if the partner wants to

make improvements to the vehicle that is their own prerogative

to do so.”

Expressions of interest from companies with the right

technical, manufacturing and financial capacity to taking the

phenoMobile Lite to the next stage are currently being sought.

Investors and other interested parties are encouraged to

request an EOI form from Marni Tebbutt, who can be reached via

email at [email protected].

Demonstrations and pilot studies can be organised on request,

with CSIRO aiming to find a licensee or commercialisation

partner by the end of the year.

CSIRO is looking for a

partner to help bring a

new technology to market

which could speed up and

increase the efficiency of

plant genetic research and

plant breeding. Andrew

Hobbs finds out more.

Today with our machine

it would probably take

you a couple of hours

to measure a number of

traits simultaneously.

a phenomenal opportunity