China unveils world's first intelligent breeding robot

(ECNS) -- Chinese scientists have achieved a world first in intelligent breeding and seed production by introducing the concept of robot-assisted crops. By applying gene editing to reshape crop floral structures, scientists produced robot-compatible structural male sterile lines.

Building on deep learning, the team successfully developed the world's first intelligent breeding robot GEAIR (Genome Editing combined with AI-based Robotics).

The GEAIR system can autonomously navigate fields and carry out hybrid pollination. Applied to soybeans, it enabled the rapid production of structural male sterile soybean lines.

This breakthrough is expected to help China take the lead in overcoming long-standing barriers in soybean hybrid breeding, increasing yields, and providing a new generation of intelligent breeding technology and equipment with unique advantages.

This AI-powered approach breaks through the bottlenecks of hybrid breeding and seed production, dramatically reducing breeding costs, shortening breeding cycles, and improving efficiency.

This research was led by Xu Cao, a researcher from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The findings were published online in the internationally renowned academic journal Cell on Monday.

(By Gong Weiwei)