In a straight fight between a houseplant and a human, you might expect the plant to be at a significant disadvantage. So [David Bowen] has decided to even the odds a little by arming this philodendron with a robot arm and a machete.
The build is a little short on details but, from the video, it appears that adhesive electrodes have been attached to the leaves of the recently-empowered plant and connected directly to analog inputs of an Arduino Uno. From there, the text tells us that the signals are mapped to movements of the industrial robot arm that holds the blade.
It’s not clear if the choice of plant is significant, but an unarmed philodendron appears to be otherwise largely innocuous, unless you happen to be a hungry rodent. We hope that there is also a means of disconnecting the power remotely, else this art installation could defend itself indefinitely! (or until it gets thirsty, at least.) We at Hackaday welcome our new leafy overlords.
We have covered the capabilities of plants before, and they can represent a rich seam of research for the home hacker. They can tell you when they’re thirsty, but can they bend light to their will? We even held a Plant Communication Hack Chat in 2021.
Thanks to [Niklas] for the tip.
Major Lazer vibes anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKKdJoXF7PI
I was waiting for Grandma to bust some moves with the halbert.
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they *could* that they didn’t stop to think whether or not they *should*.”
“Science isn’t about WHY — it’s about WHY NOT!”
-Cave Johnson
I’m not sure Cave Johnson is the right person to be quoting in a situation like this! Although, I could totally see Aperture funding this research
Trying to press the Emergency Stop Button below the Killer Plant may cost you your life.
1) There is another “emergency stop” in the breaker box :-)
2) You could press it under the plant with 2m of rebar.
3) Show the plant, that it is not wise to come with a knive to a shootout.
Number 3 could be difficult in some countries like UK, where AFAIK even the cops do not have guns.
Only in the US would someone come to an article about a knife-wielding plant and immediately threaten it with a gun…
Well, termite takes some time to ignite….
Send in the aphids! Send in the aphids!
“fantastic machine, the M5, no off switch !” Dr. Leonard McCoy
Now let´s see who dares to forget to water the plants ….
You’ll shortly see stickers on the front door
“Beware the philodendron”
I am not convinced that the plant have anything to do with it, it looks more like random noise. I would like to see a video with the electrodes disconnected.
This^
My thoughts also. It’s hard to believe that any signals from the leaves would be changing back and forth that fast.
I had the same thought. Plants are living in another tims frame more or less, as far as their perception goes. They’re much slower. Even if they sense things in a time span that we consider “real time”, it will be like in a blink of an eye to them. They can’t react/move that fast. Let’s just think of climbling plants (vines).. Except for feelings like pain or thirst, maybe, which we too can feel in both a short and long amount of time. A scope can answer this partially, at least. Things like pheromones or telepathy are harder to detect or prove, I guess.
Yes. Also this seems to be a real knife, why??? Do you really want somebody to be killed or injured? Put a plastic or wooden knife onto it and call it art, i am fine with that, but with a real knife… Stupid imho.
A dildo replacing the knife would have been much safer in this situation, as well as presenting a similar shock value.
No problem for me, go ahead!
Especially to Americans, I suppose? 😁 We Europeans usually have no problem with these things and stay relaxed, I think. A dildo mounted on this thing would have been fun to the whole family, I imagine. Not shocking, at all. The ever repeating laughter could likely be heard down the streets.
Im kidding, of course. Not all NAs are prudish gun lovers. It’s just a stereotype. I hope.
Where you expecting more deliberate movements from the plant?
Plants have phototropism, gravitropism and other “movements,” but they are very, very slow.
Sunflowers turn their flowers a few degrees per hour, and if you could sense the impulses driving the movement, you would have a slowly rotating machete, not those kinds of movements.
For me, the movements “sensed” are just random noise.
I have this plant and this robot, all I’m missing is the knife.
If it had been a crucifix, you could use it for exorcism’s !
(chase away demons, just throw in some mp3’s of latin exorcism rites).
https://vimeo.com/709247945
Look at his plant drone
Give it a mirror and a directional source of sunlight, see if it works out what to do.