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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00951
- Thesis Title
- Cyborg botany : augmented plants as sensors, displays and actuators
- Author
- Harpreet Sareen
- E-mail
- harpreet.sarin AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Media Arts and Sciences
- Year
- 2017
- Number of Pages
- 93
- University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Thesis Supervisor
- Prof. Pattie Maes
- Supervisor e-mail
- pattie AT media.mit.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- MIT Media Lab
- Copyright Ownership
- Copyright, Harpreet Sareen
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English
- URL where full thesis can be found
- dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/114063
- Keywords
- cyborg, plants, technology, cybernetics, electronics
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Plants are photosynthetic eukaryotes with a billion years of evolutionary history. While primarily sessile, they have developed distinctive abilities to adapt to the environment. They are self-powered, self-fabricating, self-regenerating and active signal networks. They carry highly advanced systems to sense and respond to the environment. We strive for such sensing and responses in our electronics; self growing or self repairing abilities in our architecture; and being sustainable at scale in general. The industrial and technological thought process has mostly been devising artificial means or replicating natural systems synthetically.
However, I propose a convergent view of technological evolution with our ecology where techno-plant hybrids are created. The approach is to formulate symbiotic associations and to place the technology in conjunction with the plant function(s). In this thesis, I go from the outside to inside the plants in conceiving such synergetic processes and present case studies of their implementation and analysis. I begin with a robot-plant hybrid where the robotic device adds mobility and is triggered with the plant's own signals. Next, lead (II) detection nanosensors are presented which reside inside the leaf of a plant and continuously sample through plant hydraulics. This is followed with a design study for plants with new conductive channels grown inside them and their subsequent use as inconspicuous motion sensors. I conclude with a symbiotic robot that lives on a sunflower plant and automatically trains or directs its growth with onboard lighting. The end result is an augmented-plant society where technology adds non-native functions or redirects the natural processes.