The robotic Venus flytrap grasped a slowly-moving 1-gram weight. (Image Credit: W. Li et al./Nature Electronics 2021)
Plants are now serving a purpose in the robotic world. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University have developed a robot gripper integrated with a piece of a Venus flytrap. While it’s capable of gripping small, delicate objects, the robot could have some useful applications.
The carnivorous Dionaea muscipula collects some of its nutrients by consuming prey that triggers the plant’s stiff hairs, causing its jaw-like leaves to snap shut. Then, its prey stays trapped inside by its interlocking teeth until the plant digests its meal. This robot gripper behaves similarly to that. Except it’s augmented with electrodes stuck to the leaves so that it can be controlled via a smartphone app.
The team used a frequency-dependent modulation technique that simulates the flytrap with speed and precision.
Incorporating soft, flexible plant material into robotics could help create more sensitive robot grippers capable of picking up fragile objects. In their demonstrations, the team attached the severed flytrap to a robotic arm to hold a piece of wire half a millimeter in diameter. When it wasn’t attached to the robotic arm, the plant caught a slow-moving 1-gram weight. However, it takes hours for the traps to open up again.
The team’s research could be used to develop thin-film patches that can attach to a leaf to monitor plant stress. Next, the team hopes to significantly improve the flytrap’s speed at which it reopens after closing.
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