For the 90’s kids, Robo-cop was a mined piece of machinery and we went bazooka’s when we first saw the cool half-robot and half-human crime-fighting officer. Now, it seems that scientists have decided to bring fantasy into reality.
Introducing to the world, the Remote-controlled Venus flytrap “Robo-plants” and crops that tell farmers when they are hit by the disease. According to a recent research report, Robo-plants could soon become a reality after scientists developed a high-tech system for In communicating with vegetation.
In Singapore, researchers managed to link up plants to electrodes capable of monitoring the weak electrical pulses naturally emitted by the greenery. The technology was then used to trigger a Venus flytrap to snap its jaws shut at the push of a button on a smartphone app.
To take things further, the researchers then attached one of its jaws to a robotic arm and got the contraption to pick up a piece of wire half a millimeter thick, and catch a small falling object.
According to the reports, the technology is still in its early stages, but researchers believe it could eventually be used to build advanced “plant-based robots” that can pick up a host of fragile objects which are too delicate for rigid, robotic arms.
“These kinds of nature robots can be interfaced with other artificial robots (to make) hybrid systems.” Stated Chen Xiaodong, the lead author of a study on the research at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
The Scientists have stated that they can stimulate the flytrap’s jaws to slam shut but can’t yet reopen them — a process that takes 10 or more hours to happen naturally.
