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Robot Caregivers Could Soon Move Your Plants Around the House So They Get Proper Amount of Sunlight

Robot Caregivers Could Soon Move Your Plants Around the House So They Get Proper Amount of Sunlight
This adorable little robot caregiver could one day save your household plants from ever dying over a lack of sunlight or water.

If you have ever been disappointed by your lack of a green thumb, this cute little contraption may one day be the savior of your withering indoor plants.

The Hexa Plant is a six-legged robot that has been specially designed to care for the potted plant that it carries on top of its head.

Using light and heat sensors, the robot has the ability to carry its plant in and out of the daylight according to the plant's sun exposure.

If the houseplant needs more sun, the Hexa will meander into the sunlight; and if the houseplant is getting too hot, the Hexa will crawl back into the shade.

The Hexa Plant will even do a little dance when it senses that the plant needs to be watered.

The robot was developed by Vincross engineer and founder Sun Tianqi after he saw a dead sunflower sitting in the shadows at a nature exhibit back in 2014.

"Plants are passive. Eternally, inexplicably passive," Tianqi wrote in a blog post. "No matter if they are being cut, bitten, burned or pulled from the earth, or when they lack sunshine, water, or are too hot or cold, they will hold still and take whatever is happening to them. They have the fewest degrees of freedom among all the creatures in nature.

"However, for billions of years, plants have never experienced movement of any kind, not even the simplest movement. Their whole lives, they stick to where they were born. Do they desire to break their own settings or have a tendency towards this?" he continued. "I do not know the answer, but I would love to try to share some of this human tendency and technology with plants. With a robotic rover base, plants can experience mobility and interaction.

"I do hope that this project can bring some inspiration to the relationship between technology and natural default settings."

Unfortunately, the Hexa Plant model robots are not for sale, though Vincross does sell a standard Hexa robot prototype.

That being said, the robots could open up an entirely new market for mechanical caregivers to watch over our household greenery.

(WATCH the robot in action below) – Photo by Sun Tianqi

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