Novel Root Imaging Platform Accelerates Plant Research

ORNL's new robotic system enables rapid analysis of plant root systems to support development of stress-tolerant crops

Published on Feb. 13, 2026

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a novel robotic platform to rapidly analyze plant root systems as they grow, yielding AI-ready data to accelerate the development of stress-tolerant crops for new fuels, chemicals and materials. The new platform adds belowground imaging to ORNL's Advanced Plant Phenotyping Laboratory (APPL), an automated facility that already uses high-resolution cameras to quickly assess aboveground plant traits.

Why it matters

Root systems are the hidden foundation of plant success, regulating water and nutrient uptake, stress response and vital interactions with the soil environment. APPL's enhanced capabilities allow researchers to simultaneously link aboveground and belowground plant performance, providing a unique perspective that can lead to breakthroughs in developing more resilient crops.

The details

The APPL system uses rhizoboxes - clear, flat boxes containing plants growing in soil and equipped with a sliding cover to block light. As each rhizobox moves into an APPL imaging chamber, the cover is robotically removed and the root environment is imaged using high-resolution color and near-infrared cameras. The system operates autonomously 24/7, generating large amounts of data on traits such as root length and diameter, nutrient and mineral uptake, and water content.

  • APPL's belowground imaging system was launched in 2026.

The players

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A U.S. Department of Energy research laboratory located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that specializes in scientific and engineering research.

Larry York

An ORNL senior scientist who specializes in studying plant roots and works closely with the APPL facility.

Jerry Tuskan

The director of the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation and a Corporate Fellow at ORNL.

Melanie Mayes

An ORNL Distinguished Scientist who focuses on how belowground resources influence aboveground plant processes.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“If you're only looking at the aboveground plant, you're only getting half the story.”

— Larry York, ORNL senior scientist (Mirage News)

“With APPL's enhanced capabilities, we can for the first time simultaneously link aboveground and belowground performance in the same plant at the same time across multiple modalities.”

— Jerry Tuskan, Director of the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation and Corporate Fellow at ORNL (Mirage News)

“Plant growth is informed by what roots are doing and our current capacity to see roots is extremely limited, representing only a snapshot in time. What APPL enables is deep insight into how plants are taking up things like water, nutrients and can even act as hyperaccumulators of critical minerals.”

— Melanie Mayes, ORNL Distinguished Scientist (Mirage News)

What’s next

APPL's capabilities are being leveraged in a multi-institutional DOE project called OPAL, or Orchestrated Platform for Autonomous Laboratories, which is creating an interconnected network of self-learning labs at four national laboratories to accelerate biotechnology breakthroughs.

The takeaway

APPL's novel root imaging platform fundamentally shifts how researchers can study belowground and aboveground plant biology, providing a holistic understanding of how plants balance their investments between roots and shoots. This unique capability can lead to significant advancements in developing stress-tolerant crops for new fuels, chemicals, and materials.