The project “GrowBot” is developing plant-inspired robots
How is it that ivy, Virginia creeper and clematis can climb? How high is their energy consumption? And is it possible to build robots that behave and move like these plants?
Scientists from the “GrowBot” project are pursuing answers to these questions. For the next four years, their research will be funded with around seven million euros by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program line FET (Future and Emerging Technologies).
The main goal of the research groups involved in “GrowBot,” such as the team led by biologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck from the University of Freiburg, is the development of robots that climb like plants and adapt to their surrounding environment.
In the future, these robots will be used in urban development, for example, to install sensors or support archaeological investigations.
Dr. Barbara Mazzolai, research director at the Micro-Bio Robotics Center of the IIT (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologie) in Pontedera, Italy, coordinates the project. Plantoid, the world’s first plant robot inspired by the growth behavior of plant roots and their movements, was created under her leadership in 2012.
"GrowBot" focuses on transferring the skills of climbers who can find suitable support structures with their climbing stems and orient themselves and move within them. Thanks to their different anchoring strategies, the plants can attach themselves to different surfaces.
The Freiburg subproject from Speck, the head of the Plant Biomechanics Group and director of the Botanic Garden at the University of Freiburg, is funded with approximately 700,000 euros. The Freiburg scientists have long been analyzing the stem structure and mechanics of climbing plants and their different attachment systems. They have already transferred their results into bio-inspired applications.
The botanists are working together with Dr. Nicholas Rowe from the Institute of Botany and Bioinformatics of Plant Architecture (Botanique et bioinformatique de l’architecture des plantes, UMR – AMAP) in Montpellier, France, on the investigations on climbing plants that are now beginning to provide ideas for a new movement paradigm for “soft robotics.” Together, they will analyze and abstract the functional principles of climbing plants in order to advance the development of novel climbing robots.
“GrowBot” brings together researchers from the fields of robotics, botany, mathematics, materials science and computer science from theUniversity of Freiburg (Freiburg, Germany), HZG- Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Zentrum Für Material- und Küstenforschung (Teltow, Germany), IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Pontedera, Italy), SSSA- Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pontedera, Italy), GSSI - Gran Sasso Science Institute (L’Aquila, Italy), Linari Engineering Srl (Pisa, Italy), Tel Aviv University (Tel Aviv, Israel), CNRS-Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (Montpellier, France) and Arkyne Technologies SL (Barcelona, Spain).
“GrowBot” project Website
www.growbot.eu
Twitter channel
www.twitter.com/GrowBot_project
Facebook page www.facebook.com/growbotproject/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Instagram channel
www.instagram.com/growbot_project/
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Speck
Plant Biomechanics Group
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-2875
thomas.speck@biologie.uni-freiburg.de
https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2018/climbing-like-ivy?set_l...
Rudolf-Werner Dreier | idw - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Further reports about: > Albert-Ludwigs-Universität > Biomechanics > Future and Emerging Technologies > climbing > computer science > energy consumption > surrounding environment > urban development
A solution for cleaning up PFAS, one of the world's most intractable pollutants
06.12.2019 | Colorado State University
Diamonds in your devices: Powering the next generation of energy storage
05.12.2019 | Tokyo University of Science
University of Texas and MIT researchers create virtual UAVs that can predict vehicle health, enable autonomous decision-making
In the not too distant future, we can expect to see our skies filled with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) delivering packages, maybe even people, from location...
With ultracold chemistry, researchers get a first look at exactly what happens during a chemical reaction
The coldest chemical reaction in the known universe took place in what appears to be a chaotic mess of lasers. The appearance deceives: Deep within that...
Abnormal scarring is a serious threat resulting in non-healing chronic wounds or fibrosis. Scars form when fibroblasts, a type of cell of connective tissue, reach wounded skin and deposit plugs of extracellular matrix. Until today, the question about the exact anatomical origin of these fibroblasts has not been answered. In order to find potential ways of influencing the scarring process, the team of Dr. Yuval Rinkevich, Group Leader for Regenerative Biology at the Institute of Lung Biology and Disease at Helmholtz Zentrum München, aimed to finally find an answer. As it was already known that all scars derive from a fibroblast lineage expressing the Engrailed-1 gene - a lineage not only present in skin, but also in fascia - the researchers intentionally tried to understand whether or not fascia might be the origin of fibroblasts.
Fibroblasts kit - ready to heal wounds
Research from a leading international expert on the health of the Great Lakes suggests that the growing intensity and scale of pollution from plastics poses serious risks to human health and will continue to have profound consequences on the ecosystem.
In an article published this month in the Journal of Waste Resources and Recycling, Gail Krantzberg, a professor in the Booth School of Engineering Practice...
Anzeige
Anzeige
03.12.2019 | Event News
First International Conference on Agrophotovoltaics in August 2020
15.11.2019 | Event News
Laser Symposium on Electromobility in Aachen: trends for the mobility revolution
15.11.2019 | Event News
Solving the mystery of carbon on ocean floor
06.12.2019 | Earth Sciences
Chip-based optical sensor detects cancer biomarker in urine
06.12.2019 | Life Sciences
A platform for stable quantum computing, a playground for exotic physics
06.12.2019 | Information Technology