An automated micropropagation system for cutting and transplanting potato tissue culture seedlings based on whole bottle

Abstract

<abstract> <bold>Abstract.</bold> Currently most micropropagation robots were developed for transplanting tissue culture seedlings based on machine vision and robotics. The machine vision system was used for recognizing seedlings and calculating positions of bifurcation points on each seedling, and the robot was used for cutting and transplanting every bifurcation point into a new bottle one by one. This method is precise but inefficient. In order to improve the working efficiency of micropropagation process, an automated micropropagation system for cutting and transplanting potato seedlings was developed based on treating all the seedlings in one bottle as a whole one time. The system mainly consists of a seedling grasper, a seedling gatherer, a seedling cutter and a press unit. The seedling grasper was used for taking all the potato seedlings out of a mother bottle one time, and the seedling gatherer was used for collecting all the seedlings into a cluster and the seedling cutter was used for cutting the cluster along seedling stalk into several parts. The pieces from each cut fall into a new bottle, and the press unit was used for pushing them into the culture medium. To make full use of seedlings, the optimal cutting length for seedlings was determined as 9 mm. The system was tested in laboratory for transplanting potato tissue culture seedlings. Test results showed that the success rate of taking seedlings out of bottles is 85.6% and the average survival rate of the transplanted pieces is 90.6% when the cutting length is 9 mm.