Until today, I had not heard of Plantoid Robotics, and frankly, I wish I had heard about it sooner. The idea of creating a robot that supports the life of a living plant is just incredible. As it turns out, the folks at Citizen Scientific Workshop have already been working on this very concept.
The Tenax Mundus is a prototype plantoid that uses an Arduino-based sensory suite to explore its environment and find an optimal location for the plant housed in its center. The full plantoid robot kit has everything to build one yourself, including a seed pod kit and soil to grow the plant.
The sensors in the kit include soil moisture, air temperature, humidity, ambient light, MQ/AQ gas sensors, and ultrasonic so it doesn’t crash into things. You’ll find the Arduino code on their website.
While plantoids remain a largely conceptual part of robotics, they have huge applications for growing plants in new environments or even on other planets as they continue to evolve. This kit allows makers of any skill level to experience the concept first-hand.
