Automation of seed performance testing
Lead Research Organisation:
John Innes Centre
Department Name: Crop Genetics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Steven Penfield (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Colmer J
(2020)
SeedGerm: a cost-effective phenotyping platform for automated seed imaging and machine-learning based phenotypic analysis of crop seed germination.
in The New phytologist
| Description | There was no scientific research funded on this grant because it was a pathfinder follow-on grant. Instead we conducted market research and background Intellectual property searches to determine the commercial value, if any of new artifical intelligence based software we developed for scoring germination. outcomes include a market report from a consultancy called England Marketing, which outlines the potential market size for the software and identifies a likely user base. A second outcome was an IP report from Venner Shipley which used a global search of patent databases to identify patents in the area of the new technology. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes are designed to be used internally for us to develop a commercialisation strategy for the new software |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Description | Our new software under development here has been used by three companies in different ways. The first company has a license and uses the software for routine seed technology applications, including research into optimising priming for individual seed batches, or optimising heat treatments for seed sterilisation. A second company has paid a fee to evaluate the hardward and software for their seed technology purposes, but decided not to use the technology further. A third company has paid us for a service to evaluate germplasm and this project helped them decide which varieties had high germination performance such that they could be brought forward to market. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Title | new seed germination phenotyping platform |
| Description | We have developed new hardware and software that automates seed germination phenotyping. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This has allowed us to increase the throughpout of seed phenotyping procedures in the lab. |
| Description | Collaboration with the Earlham Institute |
| Organisation | Earlham Institute |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We provided expertise in seed germination, and datasets of images of seed germination in a number of species. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our collaborators used their expertise in machine learning and computer vision to develop algorithms for scoring seed germination |
| Impact | This is an interdisciplinary collaboration, the disciplanes being plant science and artifical intelligence. The outcome is a new automated software tool for scoring seed germination from image stacks. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Collaboration with the National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
| Organisation | National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We helped design and test an automated system for scoring seed germination based on computer vision and artificial intelligence. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our wrote the software and co-designed the system |
| Impact | There is a publication, Colmer et al 2020 and a piece of new technology |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | collaboration with syngenta seeds |
| Organisation | Syngenta International AG |
| Department | Syngenta Seeds |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | we identified a joint research inetrest in automation of seed vigour testing. we provided software for testing for automatic calculation of germination parameters. |
| Collaborator Contribution | They provided seeds and expertise in germination box design. |
| Impact | computer science plant science |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Title | Development of SeedGerm automated seed germination scoring software |
| Description | The software automates the scoring of seed germination of lots of cereal, Brassica, tomato, pepper, maize and rice seeds. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The software has been licensed to Syngenta Seeds for use in routine seed technology applications. The software has been trialled at Elsoms seeds for monitoring vegetable seed germination. The software has been used in a collaboration with KWS to aid in selecting high vigour oilseed rape lines. |
| Description | market survey for seed germ technology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We undertook a market survey by telephone of major seed industry companies, government sector and research institutes based in the UK and Europe. The feedback will help us evaluate the commercial potential of our new technology. The outcome is raised awareness of the technology and how it can be used by seed companies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |