Plant Robots: Harnessing Growth Actuation of Plants for Locomotion and Object Manipulation.

ABSTRACT: Plants display physical displacements during their growth due to photosynthesis, which converts light into chemical energy. This can be interpreted as plants acting as actuators with a built-in power source. This paper presents a method to create plant robots that move and perform tasks by harnessing the actuation output of plants: displacement and force generated from the growing process. As the target plant, radish sprouts are employed, and their displacement and force are characterized, followed by the calculation of power and energy densities. Based on the characterization, two different plant robots are designed and fabricated: a rotational robot and a gripper. The former demonstrates ground locomotion, achieving a travel distance of 14.6 mm with an average speed of 0.8 mm h^-1

SUBMITTER: Murakami K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11578339 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature