Back in school, I remember learning that plants are “heliotropic,” meaning they grow toward light. I always found this oddly touching, as if those green tendrils stretching out to the sun proved the plant was yearning to live. And why not? That is why they do it.
But what if plants could do more than stretch? What if they could move like animals, independent of their roots? Evolution hasn’t got there yet, but it turns out, humans can help. Chinese roboticist and entrepreneur Sun Tianqi has made it happen: modding a six-legged toy robot made by his company Vincross to carry a potted plant on its back.
The resulting plant-robot hybrid looks like a leafy crab or a robot Bulbasaur. It moves toward the sunshine when needed, and it retreats to shade when it’s had enough. It’ll “play” with a human if you tap its carapace, and it can even make its needs known by performing a little stompy dance when it’s out of water. It’s not clear from Tianqi’s post how the plant actually monitors its environment, but it wouldn’t be too hard to integrate these functions with some basic light, shade, and moisture sensors. We’ve emailed for more details.
Tianqi described the project in a forum post last year (which we spotted via The Outline), saying it was a remake of an earlier installation he made in 2014 of a walking succulent (a “Hakuhou” echeveria). He called the project “Sharing Human Technology with Plants.”
Tianqi says that he was inspired by seeing a dead sunflower at an exhibition that was sitting in the shadows for some reason. Plants are usually “eternally, inexplicably passive,” he writes. You can cut them, burn them, and pull them out of the earth, and they do nothing. “They have the fewest degrees of freedom among all the creatures in nature,” he says. But, in the same way that humans have augmented our ability to move with bikes, trains, and planes, technology can give plants new freedom.
“With a robotic rover base, plants can experience mobility and interaction,” writes Tianqi. “I do hope that this project can bring some inspiration to the relationship between technology and natural default settings.”
It’s a beautiful little mod, one that raises all sorts of imaginative possibilities. Having mobile plants would be perfect for people like myself, with homes full of succulents and other plants, who need to move them about so they don’t get burned. But why not dream bigger? Imagine robot planters the size of small bears, lumbering slowly around gardens and parks, looking for a place to sun themselves. It would certainly make us think of vegetation in a new light, and it might even make gardening a bit easier.
Comments
And so it came to pass, the Triffids did return. Smaller, agile and intelligent…
By Lifemachine on 07.12.18 7:04am
I couldn’t help but see a headcrab when I looked at this.
By Ivan03 on 07.12.18 8:09am
HL3 confirmed
By zarac on 07.12.18 9:20am
Next iteration: grow your own defence. Cover your robotic lawn mower in nettles to prevent tampering!
By Thegovier on 07.12.18 9:39am
This wins the internet today.
By marcprez on 07.12.18 9:49am
I’m in.
By Awestin74 on 07.12.18 10:30am
Comment for Author: You can cut them, burn them, and pull them out of the earth, and they do nothing.
Missing "h"
By v5point0 on 07.12.18 10:51am
This is a gorgeous little robot. I love the little personality they’ve designed into it.
Also quite timely, as I just rotated the succulents on my desk.
By ench on 07.12.18 10:59am
I keep my succulents under my desk.
By TheVergeUrge on 07.12.18 11:08am
Well that is kind of awesomely cute and useless.
By TheVergeUrge on 07.12.18 11:08am
I need a Roomba that can climb stairs – this thing looks halfway there – just needs the vacuum.
By mlm5em on 07.13.18 11:42am
And Half Life 3 is still not out
By HernanMartinez on 07.12.18 12:12pm
I need one.
By Oxenbridge on 07.12.18 1:40pm
I need this in my life. My roombas and litter-robot want a new friend.
By Gondi on 07.12.18 1:47pm
Reminds me of this terrarium bot by Victoria Orolfo.
By eptin on 07.12.18 3:11pm
But can it run away from cats that try to eat the plant?
By williamw on 07.12.18 3:14pm
Better yet, can it be equipped with a water-gun turret?
By ench on 07.12.18 3:22pm
This is awesome. I would love to have one, but I wouldn’t put a plant in it:
By Mergatroid Mania on 07.12.18 3:15pm
that little dance looks more like it needs to use the restroom, not needing more water:-) that walking flowerpot is what nightmares are made of. Where can I get one
By mejustsayin on 07.12.18 4:39pm
I can’t find the version with plant pot, but the basic HEXA costs $950. It looks like it’s programmable, so if you’re a tinker, might be able to replicate the functionality of this version.
By ench on 07.12.18 5:41pm
Holy shit that looks cool! I wouldn’t mind having one or two of these at home.
By CitizenEldar on 07.13.18 3:46am
If it’s smart enough to know when it needs watering.. and it can move on it’s own.. why not have a watering base station/charging point like a roomba.
But then I guess that would defeat the point of Human interactions!
Still cool and terrifying
By BobHarris on 07.13.18 4:04am
Oh, look, another thing to charge.!
By DesmondK on 07.13.18 4:10am
Well it could be equipped with solar panels to charge itself, but then it might have to deal with internal struggles when the plant has had enough sunlight but it needs to be charged.
By mpage717 on 07.13.18 7:41am
They have a wireless charging base/dock so it can charge itself.
By ench on 07.13.18 7:27pm