Dear FarmBot’s forum members,
My name is Luciano Paulino Silva and I’m a researcher working in the field of Nanobiotechnology at Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Last months I realized that Farmbot platform is really innovative and original for plant scientists looking to broadcast their studies and I believe that I could share some common interests with some people of this forum related to automation of indoor culture of plants aiming scientific research.
Thus, Farmbot could offer a myriad of new possibilities for studies similar to those that we have developed in the genomic and proteomic fields (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1874391916300173, http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2015.00184/full , http://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-15-643 , http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0109735 , http://www.mycologia.org/content/106/4/865, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1874391914001353 , http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/pmic.201200547/abstract , http://www.eurekaselect.com/82473/article , http://femsle.oxfordjournals.org/content/281/2/167 , http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf801734m); prospection and screening of novel biomaterials from biodiversity (http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131218/ncomms4014/full/ncomms4014.html); green nanotechnology field (http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-15461-9_9 , http://www.eurekaselect.com/111456/article , http://dx.doi.org/10.1049/iet-nbt.2014.0010 , http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926669014002106, http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/2015/357384/); and also food science (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.6740/abstract).
In fact, we observed that an unprecedented CNC system like Farmbot could offer an outstanding level of new possibilities for our studies with plant models since it could offer a new range of possibilities and applications, but mainly towards the development and emulation of reproducible and controlled experiments, and avoid or at least minimize undesired human and biotic/ abiotic factors. In addition, such new level of automation could allow the investigation of a larger set of variables and also experimental conditions at the same time that the quality of the final results would be ensured. I believe that Farmbot system would be in fact an amazing experience for scientists like those from our team, in particular those scientists that would like to change paradigms related to experiments with plants.
I have also to mention that our group always receive students in our lab to introduce Science and Technology to them - as a part of our nano-school project that goal is to introduce novel technologies gradually into the traditional classroom of children and teenagers. A CNC farming machine is undoubtedly a theme that it would be fascinating to them and I have recently cited that it would be possible to show them this process in action in the near future. I also realized that several FarmBot forum’s members consider that science/technology may also be a work of social inclusion and some of our nanobiotechnology researches perfectly fit this goal since we have projects like “Nanotechnology in the farm” or “Nanotechnology in the kitchen” or “Applications of nanobiotechnolgy for urban gardens”. These approaches allow us to show for non-scientists that it is possible develop useful nanotechnologies in their own environments and using simple and inexpensive raw materials like agricultural by-products including leaves, bagasses, straws, and others. These strategies are part of our family farming initiatives and I have to say that the use of Farmbot system offer a myriad of new possibilities that we have envisioned and we really would like sharing with all members of this forum.
Despite the themes above could benefit from CNC farming possibilities, our group currently doesn’t have the ability to fabricate our own robotic instruments and adaptations and we are looking for collaboration with people that would be interested in contributing to the development of some innovative approaches using Farmbot platform. Thus, we really would like to test FarmBot towards our researches and also contribute with farmbot users and scientific community related to the development of protocols and application notes related to its use in scientific research.
Does someone would be interested in collaborating with us on a full range of applications with FarmBot and possibly new advanced CNC farming solutions (e.g. a proposal related to a mini-FarmBot to be used inside controlled environments of incubators), in particular related to proof-of-concepts on agricultural nanotechnology field? I read from some posts in this forum that FarmBot’s users are always expanding the array of possibilities for such innovative system and I would like to discuss some strategies for collaboration with such engaged people.
I really believe that we can share our expertise and grow all together since a CNC farming system like Farmbot has a lot of potential for our current applications in agricultural nanobiotechnology and beyond. In addition, our research group would like to contribute to the use and dissemination of such platform within the scientific community (developing applications and scientific papers). Thus, I’m very interested in collaborating with people potentially interested on scientific applications of FarmBot.
Indeed, if someone have any question or comment, please feel free to contact me by e-mail and I will look forward to your feedback.
Thanks in advance and waiting for reply,
Luciano Paulino da Silva
Researcher at Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology-Laboratory of Nanobiotechnology
Professor on Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology of University of Brasilia
Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
E-mail: lucianopaulinosilva@gmail.com, luciano.paulino@embrapa.br
Homepage of our research group: https://pt-br.facebook.com/gruponanobiotec
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=c_7quNQAAAAJ&hl=pt-BR
Research Gate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luciano_Silva8
Linkedin: http://br.linkedin.com/pub/luciano-paulino-silva/16/858/151