Developed by a group of scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, FiloBot is a robot that can continually grow itself like a vine, adding a spiraling length of 3D printed filament to extend itself as it grows in a form of biomimicry. The robot can be programmed to grow towards light, shade, or use gravity as a guide. Me? I typically head towards shade with the intention of taking a nap.
Drawing “inspiration from the behavioral adaptive strategies of climbing plants to navigate unstructured environments,” the robot’s spinning head constantly lays down a fresh spiral of filament fed through its body, growing its total length a few millimeters per minute. That might not sound like much, but there are a lot of minutes in a day. The scientists hope that in the future, the robot might help with search-and-rescue missions or to measure pollution in hard-to-reach places.
Will future houseplants be robotic? That would be great; then they’d only require electricity and plastic filament to grow, and I wouldn’t have to water them. Watering plants can be tricky– too much or too little will kill them. And I should know, the local plant nursery has my picture on the wall behind the register and won’t sell to me anymore.
[Nature via BoingBoing]
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