PLANTOID

Innovative Robotic Artefacts Inspired by Plant Roots for Soil Monitoring

Coordinatore	FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA    more  Organization address address: VIA MOREGO 30 city: GENOVA contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Gabriele Cognome: Ballero Email: send email Telefono: 3901070000000 Fax: 39010720321
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Italy [IT]
Totale costo	2˙091˙887 €
EC contributo	1˙619˙924 €
Programma	FP7-ICT Specific Programme "Cooperation": Information and communication technologies
Code Call	FP7-ICT-2011-C
Funding Scheme	CP
Anno di inizio	2012
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2012-05-01   -   2015-04-30

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA  Organization address address: VIA MOREGO 30 city: GENOVA contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Gabriele Cognome: Ballero Email: send email Telefono: 3901070000000 Fax: 39010720321	IT (GENOVA)	coordinator	0.00
2	ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE  Organization address address: BATIMENT CE 3316 STATION 1 city: LAUSANNE contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Dario Cognome: Floreano Email: send email Telefono: +41 21 6935966 Fax: +41 21 6935859	CH (LAUSANNE)	participant	0.00
3	FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE BIOENGINYERIA DE CATALUNYA  Organization address address: Josep Samitier city: BARCELONA contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Josep Cognome: Samitier Martí Email: send email Telefono: +34 9340 31198 Fax: +34 9340 39702	ES (BARCELONA)	participant	0.00
4	UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE  Organization address address: Piazza San Marco city: Florence contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Paolo Cognome: Nannipieri Email: send email Telefono: 390553000000 Fax: 39055333273	IT (Florence)	participant	0.00

Mappa

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

We aim at designing, prototyping, and validating a new generation of ICT hardware and software technologies inspired from plant roots, called PLANTOIDS, endowed with distributed sensing, actuation, and intelligence for tasks of environmental exploration and monitoring. PLANTOIDS take inspiration from, and aim at reproducing, the amazing penetration, exploration, and adaptation capabilities of plant roots. Plants have evolved very robust growth behaviours to respond to changes in their environment and a network of highly sensorized branching roots to efficiently explore the soil volume, mining minerals and up-taking water. PLANTOID has two major goals: 1) to abstract and synthesize with robotic artefacts the principles that enable plant roots to effectively and efficiently explore and adapt to underground environments; 2) to formulate scientifically testable hypotheses and models of some unknown aspects of plant roots, such as the role of local communication among root apices during adaptive growth and the combination of rich sensory information to produce collective decisions. The PLANTOID artefact will be composed of a network of sensorized and actuated roots, displaying rich sensing and coordination capabilities as well as energy-efficient actuation and high sustainability, typical of the Plant Kingdom. Each PLANTOID root will consist of an apex that comprises sensors, actuators, control units, and by an elongation zone that mechanically connects the apex and the trunk of the robot. The new technologies expected to result from PLANTOID concern energy-efficient actuation systems, chemical and physical micro-sensors, sensor fusion techniques, kinematics models, and distributed, adaptive control in networked structures with local information and communication capabilities. The foundational research program of PLANTOID will be carried out by a consortium of engineers, plant biologists, and computer scientists with demonstrated experience in interdisciplinary work.