Rise of the 'robo-plants', while scientists fuse dynamics with tech
Remote-controlled Venus flytrap "robo-plants" and crops that tell farmers if they are struck by disease could become fact after scientists produced a high-tech program for communicating with vegetation.
Researchers in Singapore linked up plants to electrodes with the capacity of monitoring the weak electrical pulses naturally emitted by the greenery.
The scientists used the technology to trigger a Venus flytrap to snap its jaws shut at the push of a button on a smartphone app.
They then attached one of its jaws to a robotic arm and got the contraption to get a piece of wire half a millimeter thick, and catch a little falling object.
The technology is in its first stages, but researchers believe it might eventually be utilized to build advanced "plant-based robots" that may pick up a bunch of fragile objects which are too delicate for rigid, robotic arms.
"These varieties of nature robots could be interfaced with additional artificial robots (to make) hybrid devices," Chen Xiaodong, the business lead writer of a study on the study at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), told AFP.
There are still challenges to be overcome. Scientists can stimulate the flytrap's jaws to slam shut but can't but reopen them -- a process that takes 10 or more hours to happen naturally.
The system may also grab signals emitted by plants, raising the opportunity that farmers can detect issues with their crops at an early stage.
"By monitoring the plants' electrical signals, we may be able to find possible distress signals and abnormalities," said Chen.
"Farmers could find out whenever a disease is happening, even before full-blown symptoms appear on the crops."
Experts believe such technology could be particularly useful due to crops encounter increasing threats from environment change.
Scientists have got long known that plants emit very weak electrical indicators but their uneven and waxy areas helps it be difficult to effectively mount sensors.
The NTU experts developed film-like, soft electrodes that fit tightly to the plant's area and can identify signals more accurately.
They are attached by using a "thermogel", which is liquid at low temperatures but becomes a gel at room temperature.
They will be the latest to conduct research communicating with plants.
In 2016, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team turned spinach leaves into sensors that may send an email aware of scientists when they detect explosive materials in groundwater.
The team embedded carbon nanotubes that emit a signal when plant roots identify nitroaromatics -- compounds often found in explosives. The transmission is then go through by an infrared camera that transmits out a message to the scientists.
Source: japantoday.com
