Salk Institute of Biological Studies conducts research and gathers data from plants in different environments. They learn how plants can adapt to various environments. A way they research these plants is by studying its roots. Since Salk Institute of Biological Studies operates a high volume, they have a bottleneck in the process that hinders their ability to collect pictures of the roots at a fast rate. Currently, the researchers at Salk gather data from the roots manually by scanning. Salk has proposed an automated image acquisition system that would be used to scan the roots and store the data.
Throughout the course of this year, the team designed and built a prototype that they think will solve the problem they have at hand. As a team, they have decided to incorporate the use of 3-D printed sample plate holders that is placed in front of an open-ended scanner. The system operates with a gripper on an XYZ axis that keeps obtaining plates, places them in the holder, and while the plate is getting scanned it will go grab another plate to place in the second holder. The system keeps doing this back and forth.
