Researchers observing a robot. People's Daily
Chinese scientists have unveiled the world’s first AI-powered breeding robot named GEAIR (genome Editing combined with AI-based Robotics). It can cruise autonomously and carry out cross-pollination, promising reduced breeding costs, short breeding cycles, and improved breeding efficiency.
GEAIR has been built with a combination of two technologies: artificial intelligence(AI) and biotechnology. Xu Cao, a researcher from the Institute of Genetics and Development Biology, CAS, led the research team which built the robot.
How does GEAIR help?
Cross-pollination, also known as hybrid pollination, is the process of transferring pollen from one flower of a plant to another. This process helps in creating hybrid offspring of plants, also known as hybrid breeding.
The aim of hybrid breeding is to ensure superior birth and raising of crops to achieve good yield and quality. However, according to Xu, doing this process repeatedly is time-consuming. GEAIR can help reduce this time and also provide precision, avoiding human errors.
Living up to its promised potential, the robot carried out an exercise in a greenhouse. It identified a flower accurately and extended its arm gently to complete the hybrid pollination process. Furthermore, it also carried out the entire breeding process with inch-perfect precision.
“AI and robots offer vast opportunities in shifting hybrid breeding toward precision agriculture to enhance crop yields, reduce costs and promote sustainable practices,” said Xu Cao, discussing the impact of GEAIR’s performance.
How did they do it?
The researchers used gene editing to change crop flowers to create male-sterile flowers that make it easier for robots to produce hybrid seeds.
Then, they combined this breeding robot with new farming methods like “de novo domestication” and “speed breeding” to build the first “intelligent robotic breeding factory,” which can quickly and efficiently create new, high-quality plant varieties.
This robot was also used to develop a male-sterile soybean system, which could help China catapult their efforts in soybean hybrid breeding and greatly boost crop yields.
A glance at the impact
GEAIR is poised to usher in a new era backed by AI and biotechnology in the breeding industry.
“Our new study initiated an intelligent breeding model of integrated biotechnology, AI and robot labor — marking China’s successful pioneering efforts in the construction of a closed-loop technology system for intelligent robotized hybrid breeding,” Xu said.
“It also shows the application prospects of ‘AI for science’ in the sector of biological breeding,” he added.
With biotechnology as its foundation, AI as empowerment, and robotic as operator, this study could help China take the lead in the race to create breeding robot with a closed-loop technology system that is fully autonomous and intelligent.
The study was published in the journal Cell, as per the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGBD) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Atharva Gosavi Atharva is a full-time content writer with a post-graduate degree in media & amp; entertainment and a graduate degree in electronics & telecommunications. He has written in the sports and technology domains respectively. In his leisure time, Atharva loves learning about digital marketing and watching soccer matches. His main goal behind joining Interesting Engineering is to learn more about how the recent technological advancements are helping human beings on both societal and individual levels in their daily lives.
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