Integrating Automation Technologies With Commercial Micropropagation

Abstract

Micropropagation is still an industry in its infancy; costs are too high to compete in the marketplace effectively and consequently, the volumes necessary to make full use of advanced automation technologies are often lacking. If automation can be developed which decreases the direct cost per plantlet, by 50%, i.e., from US$ 0.35 to US$ 0.17, then certain markets will open up and volumes of plantlets sold will increase. Likewise, if flexibility and software advances permit users to modify robotic production lines in house, then greater numbers of varieties and species can be run through a single line, allowing more compatibility with the existing framework of micropropagation laboratories and their product mixes and annual fluctuations.