PLANTOID is a pioneer robotics project which is inspired by plants.

PLANTOID take inspiration from, and aim at imitating, the amazing penetration, exploration, and adaptation capabilities of plant roots.

Plants have evolved very robust growth behaviours to respond to changes in their environment and a network of highly sensorized branching roots to efficiently explore the soil volume, mining minerals and up-taking water. PLANTOID has two major goals:
1) to abstract and synthesize with robotic artefacts the principles that enable plant roots to effectively and efficiently explore and adapt to underground environments;
2) to formulate scientifically testable hypotheses and models of some unknown aspects of plant roots, such as the role of local communication among root apices during adaptive growth and the combination of rich sensory information to produce collective decisions.

The PLANTOID artefact will be composed of a network of sensorized and actuated roots, displaying rich sensing and coordination capabilities as well as energy-efficient actuation and high sustainability, typical of the Plant Kingdom. Each PLANTOID root will consist of an apex that comprises sensors, actuators, control units, and by an elongation zone that mechanically connects the apex and the trunk of the robot. The new technologies expected to result from PLANTOID concern energy-efficient actuation systems, chemical and physical micro-sensors, sensor fusion techniques, kinematics models, and distributed, adaptive control in networked structures with local information and communication capabilities. The foundational research program of PLANTOID will be carried out by a consortium of engineers, plant biologists, and computer scientists with demonstrated experience in interdisciplinary work.

This project

• Acronym: PLANTOID

• Project full title: Innovative Robotic Artefacts Inspired by Plant Roots for Soil Monitoring

• Coordinator: Barbara Mazzolai, Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

• Funding Institution: European Commission (European Union)

• Start: May 1, 2012

• End: April 30, 2015

• Cost: 2,091,887.00 €

  source: www.plantoindproject.eu

機器植物是受植物啟發的一項先驅機器人計畫。

機器植物的靈感來源以及目的在於模仿植物根的滲透、探索和適應能力。機器植物由感知與驅動的根系網絡組成，展現了豐富的感知與協調能力，以及能源效率驅動、高可持續性等植物界的典型特徵。這項計畫由義大利技術研究院的工程師、植物學家以及電腦科學家組成的聯盟所執行，並受歐盟委員會贊助。