NTU Singapore team develops plant communication tool
Researchers at NTU Singapore have developed a device to communicate with plants, aiming to unlock potential in robotics and agriculture.
The team at NTU (Nanyang Technological University) said that the plant communication device was developed by attaching a conformable electrode on the surface of a Venus flytrap plant using hydrogel as an adhesive.
According to the study, published in Nature Electronics, the electrode achieves two things when attached to the plant’s surface: picking up electrical signals to monitor how the plant responds to its environment; and transmitting electrical signals to the plant, causing it to close its leaves.
The NTU researchers believe that this ability to measure electrical signals of plants could create opportunities in robotics - such as plant-based robots and more sensitive grippers that pick up fragile objects - as well as in agriculture, allowing farmers to detect disease in crops and maximise crop yield.
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