If you’ve ever accidentally killed a calla lily or shamefully neglected a succulent, you’ll love this adorable six-legged robot that’s programmed to keep your plants alive.
This cute Groot-like creation carries potted plants on its back and moves toward light or shade as needed, the Verge reports. The robot plays with you when you tap its shell, and it dances when it’s happy. It also does an agitated jig if the plant needs water.
Designed by roboticist and Vincross founder Sun Tianqi, the plant robot prototype is a modified version of his company’s HEXA robot. The playful plant caretaker is the latest iteration of a project he started in 2014 called “Sharing Human Technology with Plants.”
Tianqi wrote in a Vincross forum post last September that the project was originally inspired by a dead sunflower he saw at an exhibit. He thought that the flower would have lived if it could just move out of the shadows. From there, he wanted to make something that would allow plants to experience “mobility and interaction.”
“When human beings go to deep ocean and moon through technology, let’s share some of technology with plants, let them at least experience what it is like to experience the simplest of motions,” Tianqi wrote.
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H/T the Verge
