This work has demonstrated the aseptic, automated harvest of somatic e
mbryos from a bioreactor suspension culture. Machine vision, emulating
the selection criteria of an experienced biologist, classified embryo
s as harvestable or non-harvestable as they flowed through a 3 mm glas
s conduit. Embryos classified as harvestable were separated in a seale
d harvest chamber. The system harvested 60% of the embryos at a rate o
f 2.4 embryos/h and incorrectly harvested less than 1% of the non-harv
est objects. The low harvest rate precludes the applicability of this
technique to research and commercial tissue culture laboratories. The
suspension feed-rate, culture population density and culture homogenei
ty were identified as the most important factors influencing embryo ha
rvest rate. The performance of this technique on more densely populate
d cultures was projected using anticipated improvements in suspension
feedrate. It was concluded that, under the conditions of this analysis
, the harvester would be of limited value in a commercial propagation
environment but could be beneficial to many research labs working with
plant somatic embryos.