EPPN is an Integrating Activity, Research Infrastructure project funded by the European Union under FP7 Capacities Programme. Grant Agreement No. 284443.
ABER IPC
(sorry the installation is booked out)
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The system is based on a conveyor installed in two large glasshouses which can automatically move plants to imaging chambers where different imaging techniques record plant development and physiology non-destructively. Types of imaging include: 1) Near infra-red thermography of shoots (for mapping changes in plant temperature and stomatal activity. 2) Fluorescence (for photosynthetic function and detection of fluorescent tags). 3) NIR for soil columns with automatic removal of outer root covers from specialised containers 10cm diameter x 50 cm tall available for up to 425 plants (for water content and root tracking). 4) Visible (for morphology, growth estimates etc.). 5) NIR tuned to detect water content. In all imaging except 3, both top and side view images can be acquired simultaneously, and all imaging except 1 is equipped with zoom lenses. An overhead laser scanner is incorporated into unit 3 to allow high resolution 3d surface reconstruction of small plants. The plants are maintained in 850 RFID tagged cars which can contain one 23.5 cm diameter (6 L volume) pots or trays (22 x 15 cm) with multi-pots for a number of small plants. The system is programmable so that each plant can be imaged, provided with precise watering and nutrition, or sprayed as required. Plants can also be moved to a convenient position for manual sampling or additional measurements.
Contact: Aberystwyth University General Information http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/
Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/ibers/
Enquiries: http://www.plant-phenomics.ac.uk/en/who/staff/jhd2/
