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Self-burying robot morphs wood to sow seeds

A natural seed has inspired the design of a robot that can bury itself in soil when exposed to rainfall. The mechanism relies on the shape-changing properties of wood — a simple and elegant example of sustainable innovation.
  1. Samuel E. Mason

    1. Samuel E. Mason is in the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

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  2. Naomi Nakayama

    1. Naomi Nakayama is in the Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

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Wood swells in response to humidity — a tendency that makes the scales of pine cones close when wet1. Structures that change shape in this way are known as hygromorphs, and plants often use them to sense and respond to environmental changes. Writing in Nature, Luo et al.2 have optimized a hygromorphic structure to produce a robot that can plant seeds efficiently and sustainably. The mechanism draws inspiration from real seeds and the material is natural and renewable, allowing for harmless degradation of the robot after use.

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Nature 614, 415-416 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00396-4

References

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  2. Luo, D. et al. Nature 614, 463–470 (2023).

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  3. Vovchenko, N., Novikov, A., Sokolov, S. & Tishchenko, E. IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 595, 012009 (2020).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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