WIWAM-Maize

     

Location

Plant Systems Biology, VIB-UGent, Ghent, Belgium

Environmental monitoring:

temperature, relative humidity

Parameters:

shoot growth, irrigation

Capacity:

156 plants

Short description:

The maize WIWAM, also named ‘SHRIMPY’ (System for High-throughput Recording and Imaging of Maize Phenotypes related to Yield), is a phenotyping system designed for crops, and is located in a controlled-environment growth chamber. It provides automated imaging, and weighing and irrigation of plants according to a pre-set scheme, specific for each plant or group of plants. This may include fixed quantities of solution, or irrigation to a certain target weight determined by the requested soil humidity levels. The system is thus ideally suited to impose soil water deficit treatments. Plants are positioned in tables which are sorted in rows. The robot arm pushes the tables aside to move in between the rows, where it locates a pot and lifts it out of the table. The robot then takes the pot to the rotating platform of the weighing and irrigation station. For the imaging of plants, pots are taken to a designated area at the back of the growth chamber where plants are rotated in front of a RGB camera for multiple angle imaging.

Further details:

http://www.psb.ugent.be/phenotyping/wiwam-maize

http://www.yieldbooster.org/research/87-plant-phenotyping-system-and-tool-development

Contact person:

Stijn Dhondt, Nathalie Wuyts (plantphenotyping@psb.vib-ugent.be)