Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS
At the Merkendorf location, sustainable, resource-efficient high technologies are being (further) developed. This way we support agriculture in its transformation processes towards increasing resilience to crisis events in regional food production, thereby enhancing value creation in agriculture.
The focus is particularly on crops that are highly relevant for regional agriculture and food supply, such as rice, potatoes, or wheat.
At the Technology Center for Phenotyping, we specifically emphasize the development and testing of technologies that can be used for the phenotyping of plants, allowing for the objective assessment of specific traits and quality control.
Plant varieties are analyzed to understand their responses to various environmental influences and to identify plants that can still provide sufficient yields despite changing conditions. Using computed tomography applications from the Fraunhofer Development Center for X-ray Technology (EZRT), plants can be examined not only superficially but also in terms of seed quality and underground root structures. In breeding new plants, the focus is on resilient varieties that withstand changing environmental influences, provide high-quality ingredients, and achieve higher crop yields. Given the growing population, the impacts of climate change, and the shift towards sustainable agriculture, accelerating breeding is a key factor. The project focuses on plants relevant to regional agriculture and food supply, which are selected and studied as examples.
»Pheno Valley« at the Merkendorf Location
- Development of multimodal sensor and actuator systems
- In controlled environments at Merkendorf
- In the field in collaboration with the Triesdorf family
- Establishing publicly accessible infrastructure for plant phenotyping
- Establishment of data transmission systems, data management, and localization
- Application to solve questions from the agricultural industry (pathogen detection, heat stress, drought stress, etc.)
- Evaluation opportunity for sensor manufacturers
- Networking: Exchange with national and international stakeholders
