It doesn’t have a name – a publishable one anyway –  according to the Australian National University (ANU) team that put it together.

It’s definitely a robot, but it looked like an unusual model train when it trundled around its elevated tracks at the University of Queensland’s (UQ’s) Redland Bay farm the other day.

The robot’s developers, ANU research officer Dr Suan Chin Wong and senior technical officer Peter Groeneveld brought their baby north to help colleague Chris Lambrides, a UQ research fellow in molecular plant breeding, measure transpiration efficiency (TE) in sunflowers.

Dr Lambrides is nearing the end of a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported project to develop more drought tolerant sunflowers by improving  their transpiration efficiency.

The first high TE parent lines from Dr Lambrides’ project are now in the hands of seed companies for incorporation into commercial sunflower varieties, along with molecular markers that company sunflower breeders will use to ensure the high TE characteristics are transferred to the targeted germplasm.

Scientists from ANU and CSIRO have a long history of collaboration on TE research, and Dr Wong and Mr Groeneveld  developed their robot to help build an understanding of what causes the differences between inbred, high and low TE lines.

The robot is fitted with two infra-red thermometers, on either side, with a light sensor on top

In its operations at Redland Bay the robot’s oval track, 1.2 metres from the ground,  covered 22 plots of Dr Lambrides’ experimental, inbred, high and low TE sunflower lines, transmitting data back to base station computers in the farm office some 50 metres away.

“To minimise any possible calibration difference, we turn the two infra-red thermometers  180 degrees each time the robot completes a run. We can also change the angle of the thermometers, to look at different parts of the crop,” Dr Wong said.

“We know the leaves of plants which use less water will be hotter than those that use more, and vice versa, so the robot is designed to measure the differences between the leaves of different inbred sunflower lines on Dr Lambrides’ 22 plots. 

“When the information from the robot is radioed back to the computer, we factor in other meteorological variables like humidity, radiation and wind velocity and direction.”

Dr Wong said the experiment had required the sunflower plots to be sown east-west, because, during the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun’s angle is low, one thermometer is looking into the side of the canopy with more shadow than the other side of the canopy.

A more realistic canopy temperature was achieved by averaging the readings of the two thermometers.

Operation of the robot require  full canopy closure, as bare soil would  affect the accuracy of its measurements.

The ANU team will bring its robot back to Redland Bay in February, to make similar assessments of hybrids and inbred lines from Dr Lambrides’ TE sunflower breeding program.