“Ji’er”, China’s intelligent breeding robot, has been released with an upgraded version of embodied intelligence, enabling autonomous and precise pollination and phenotypic collection.
2026-09-06 17:30Products & Apps🔥 47.3 heat score
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On September 4, 2026, the intelligent breeding robot “Jier”, developed by the team of Xu Cao from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, unveiled its new version of embodied intelligence in Beijing. This robot possesses capabilities for automatic cruising, hybrid pollination, and phenotype collection. By integrating biotechnology for modifying crop flower shapes with AI vision technology, it can accurately identify stamen sizes as small as a needle tip and avoid obstacles. Live demonstrations showed that the robot’s two arms can complete a single tomato pollination in 10 seconds, with each operation able to handle approximately 50 flowers. Previous related research has been published in the journal *Cell*. This upgrade marks a new stage for intelligent breeding equipment in China.
On September 4, Beijing released the upgraded autonomous cruise hybrid pollination robot “Jier”. Developed by the team led by Xu Cao from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this robot can independently identify flower staments, perform precise positioning, carry out accurate pollination, and collect phenotypes. The upgrade relies on biological modification of crop flower shapes and AI vision technology to enable obstacle avoidance and identification of stamen sizes as small as a needle tip. On-site demonstrations showed that with its two arms working together, it could complete a tomato pollination in 10 seconds, and each dipping could support approximately 50 operations. This marks a new stage for intelligent breeding equipment in China.
On September 4th, the intelligent breeding robot “Jier” with automatic cruise and hybrid pollination capabilities was released in Beijing. The newly upgraded robot can perform complex tasks such as flower stigma identification, positioning, pollination, and phenotype collection. On-site demonstrations showed that the robot holds a pollen tube in its right hand and a pollination brush in its left hand. By dipping the pollen into the brush and gently brushing over the tomato flower stigma, pollination can be completed in less than 10 seconds, with each dip capable of performing approximately 50 operations. Previously, agricultural experts used biotechnology to expose the flower stigma of crops to provide pollination space and helped the robot accurately identify stigma sizes as small as a needle tip, avoiding obstacles such as branches and leaves. In August 2025, Xu Cao, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led a team to develop this robot by integrating biotechnology with AI. The related research was published in the journal *Cell*.