Heliobots

Heliobots

Heliobots

The French architect Le Corbusier once described domestic buildings as ‘machines for living in’. The field of architecture has commonly drawn inspiration from the final form of living things. However, the processes that power such growth are of equal significance. Redirecting the morphogenesis processes to produce living structures can lead us to new self-growing, self-repairing architectures. Examples of such structures in various cultures have existed from years and are now on the cusp of adaptation for new technological visions.

For instance, the ancient root bridges in Eastern India are built by the locals by manually training the pliable roots of trees across the river streams. Due to its self-repairing (self-renewing, self-strengthening) attributes, the estimated lifetime of such structures is hundreds of years longer in comparison to concrete structures. In modern society entrenched with building through concrete/cement and entrenched labour, what does it take to flip the paradigm to ecological construction that is done by robots that build consistent with our ecology?

Through our work, we propose a new vision called ‘Automated Arbortecture’ – a milli-robotic system that directs the morphogenesis of plants to build structural frameworks and artefacts integrated in our ecosystem. Current construction and building approaches rely either on manual processes or directing the processes with scaffolds around the growing system. However, a self-building architectural process cannot start to be sustainable if it relies on a pre-built architecture around it. This is where our unique decision of a symbiotic robot weighs in – a climbing robot that lives on a plant, powers a plant’s growth and is able to direct its shapes through its own programming.

We prepare robots that use a plant as a scaffolding with an ascend/descend mechanism and light(s)/gravity to power a plant’s growth as per pre-programmed shapes in its software. We grew two batches of Perennial sunflowers for this project for 10 weeks, with each plant being robotically shaped, and the growth and output recorded continuously. After a period of 45 days, we achieved robotically controlled directional organic growth on sunflower plants.

Sunflowers, an ideal candidate for fast growth and woody stems will chosen as an eventual substitute for bamboo. This work envisions bamboo forests where gravity-bots morph the shape of growing structure to produce building frameworks. Such plant-robots reduce human intervention leaving the building process intact and in coherence with the nature, pointing to a future where greenhouses could not only grow crops but also furniture.

Architects and synthetic biologist have together dreamt of a world where the growth program could be encoded in the cells to be able to grow houses that integrated within in our ecology. On these lines of thought, this project makes the viewers deliberate about new symbiotic association with climbing robots that live on a sunflower plant. While the robot uses the plant as its scaffolding, it also trained the plant’s growth using onboard lighting.

Our work, Automated Arbotecture, demonstrates technological objects as part of the human nature evolving through ‘concretization’. Inspired by Simondon’s machine philosophy, we see technological and biological beings together and emphasize the dynamic between objects and ‘umwelten’ (environment). These growth robots aspiring for convergence in what we do in our technological world and the inimitable aspects occurring naturally.

The project is also timely probing the current to redirect designer views and to have them ponder upon nature a part of the design process. Doing so will help us usher in a new technological symbiosis era where designers can ‘conduct their practice with and for elements and species in nature’.

The French architect Le Corbusier once described domestic buildings as ‘machines for living in’. The field of architecture has commonly drawn inspiration from the final form of living things. However, the processes that power such growth are of equal significance. Redirecting the morphogenesis processes to produce living structures can lead us to new self-growing, self-repairing architectures. Examples of such structures in various cultures have existed from years and are now on the cusp of adaptation for new technological visions.

For instance, the ancient root bridges in Eastern India are built by the locals by manually training the pliable roots of trees across the river streams. Due to its self-repairing (self-renewing, self-strengthening) attributes, the estimated lifetime of such structures is hundreds of years longer in comparison to concrete structures. In modern society entrenched with building through concrete/cement and entrenched labour, what does it take to flip the paradigm to ecological construction that is done by robots that build consistent with our ecology?

Through our work, we propose a new vision called ‘Automated Arbortecture’ – a milli-robotic system that directs the morphogenesis of plants to build structural frameworks and artefacts integrated in our ecosystem. Current construction and building approaches rely either on manual processes or directing the processes with scaffolds around the growing system. However, a self-building architectural process cannot start to be sustainable if it relies on a pre-built architecture around it. This is where our unique decision of a symbiotic robot weighs in – a climbing robot that lives on a plant, powers a plant’s growth and is able to direct its shapes through its own programming.

We prepare robots that use a plant as a scaffolding with an ascend/descend mechanism and light(s)/gravity to power a plant’s growth as per pre-programmed shapes in its software. We grew two batches of Perennial sunflowers for this project for 10 weeks, with each plant being robotically shaped, and the growth and output recorded continuously. After a period of 45 days, we achieved robotically controlled directional organic growth on sunflower plants.

Sunflowers, an ideal candidate for fast growth and woody stems will chosen as an eventual substitute for bamboo. This work envisions bamboo forests where gravity-bots morph the shape of growing structure to produce building frameworks. Such plant-robots reduce human intervention leaving the building process intact and in coherence with the nature, pointing to a future where greenhouses could not only grow crops but also furniture.

Architects and synthetic biologist have together dreamt of a world where the growth program could be encoded in the cells to be able to grow houses that integrated within in our ecology. On these lines of thought, this project makes the viewers deliberate about new symbiotic association with climbing robots that live on a sunflower plant. While the robot uses the plant as its scaffolding, it also trained the plant’s growth using onboard lighting.

Our work, Automated Arbotecture, demonstrates technological objects as part of the human nature evolving through ‘concretization’. Inspired by Simondon’s machine philosophy, we see technological and biological beings together and emphasize the dynamic between objects and ‘umwelten’ (environment). These growth robots aspiring for convergence in what we do in our technological world and the inimitable aspects occurring naturally.

The project is also timely probing the current to redirect designer views and to have them ponder upon nature a part of the design process. Doing so will help us usher in a new technological symbiosis era where designers can ‘conduct their practice with and for elements and species in nature’.

The whole setup entails a sunflower plant (Russian Mammoth variety, 6ft in tall pots 12” dia), our custom robots mounted on the plants and electric power (4A) controlling the lights. The above setup is easy to replicate in an exhibition system.

--- Our specifications during the experiment ---
For robotic phototropic shaping, the following properties are desired from a plant system:

1. Strong stem (>1cm lignified diameter) with ample pliability when not lignified
2. Fast growth (> 2ft growth per month) to test iterations within project timeline
3. Single stem with minimum off-shoots or branches
4. Positive and regular phototropic response

Pliability, motion dynamics and growth rate of a plant play a crucial role in the design of the symbiotic robot. The following plants were short listed with the above properties:

i. Single cane Bamboo (e.g. Moso, Temperate bamboo)
ii. Helianthus Annuus (Perennial Mammoth Sunflower varieties)
iii. Peppermint Stick Giant Reed (>1cm cane diameter, available as grown plant),
iv. Arundo Donax (>1cm cane diameter, available as grown plant)


While a bamboo plant system (timber variety) is ideal for fast growth and use in architectural structures, these have to be grown for a certain number of years before lengthening plus lignification process starts. For our purposes and timeframe, the next on list – perennial sunflower varieties fit the requirements. Two varieties of sunflower were chosen for the directed growth:

a) ProCut Gold (Johnny’s Selected Seeds #1896)
Hybrid Status: F1
Days to Maturity: 55 to 60 days
Height: 60”-72”

b) Russian Mammoths (Natural Helianthus Annuus)
Days to Maturity: 60 to 90 days
Height: 96”-132”

Most plant sciences experiments entail isolation of all factors before a single variable can be studied. For shaping a plant with a phototropic robot (robot with light source for directed growth), the design was limited to an indoor system.

The whole setup entails a sunflower plant (Russian Mammoth variety, 6ft in tall pots 12” dia), our custom robots mounted on the plants and electric power (4A) controlling the lights. The above setup is easy to replicate in an exhibition system.

--- Our specifications during the experiment ---
For robotic phototropic shaping, the following properties are desired from a plant system:

1. Strong stem (>1cm lignified diameter) with ample pliability when not lignified
2. Fast growth (> 2ft growth per month) to test iterations within project timeline
3. Single stem with minimum off-shoots or branches
4. Positive and regular phototropic response

Pliability, motion dynamics and growth rate of a plant play a crucial role in the design of the symbiotic robot. The following plants were short listed with the above properties:

i. Single cane Bamboo (e.g. Moso, Temperate bamboo)
ii. Helianthus Annuus (Perennial Mammoth Sunflower varieties)
iii. Peppermint Stick Giant Reed (>1cm cane diameter, available as grown plant),
iv. Arundo Donax (>1cm cane diameter, available as grown plant)


While a bamboo plant system (timber variety) is ideal for fast growth and use in architectural structures, these have to be grown for a certain number of years before lengthening plus lignification process starts. For our purposes and timeframe, the next on list – perennial sunflower varieties fit the requirements. Two varieties of sunflower were chosen for the directed growth:

a) ProCut Gold (Johnny’s Selected Seeds #1896)
Hybrid Status: F1
Days to Maturity: 55 to 60 days
Height: 60”-72”

b) Russian Mammoths (Natural Helianthus Annuus)
Days to Maturity: 60 to 90 days
Height: 96”-132”

Most plant sciences experiments entail isolation of all factors before a single variable can be studied. For shaping a plant with a phototropic robot (robot with light source for directed growth), the design was limited to an indoor system.

http://harpreetsareen.com/press

https://youtu.be/p-afjeBRBR8

https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/faculty/harpreet-sareen/

Harpreet is an Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design at Parsons School of Design. His research is situated at the intersection of Material Science, Biology and Electronics and draws on the complementary abilities of the biological and artificial worlds. He terms this as 'Convergent Design' and creates cutting edge bionic materials and hybrid substrates that lend themselves for future ecological machinery, sensing systems and interaction design. Harpreet earned a graduate degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab and has previously lived and worked in the Austria, India, Japan, Singapore and USA.

His experience spans corporate research wings, studios, museums to academic centers having previously worked at Google Creative Lab, Microsoft Research, MIT Media Lab, Ars Electronica Museum, National University of Singapore, Keio University and more. He has previously been named as MIT Technology Review Under 35 Innovator and has been awarded CHI Golden Mouse, SXSW Interactive Innovation, Fast Company World Changing Ideas among other accolades. His academic work has been published at peer-reviewed conferences like CHI, DIS, VRST, SIGGRAPH, SIGraDi and other human computer interaction venues. Harpreet's artwork has been showcased at Ars Electronica Festival, Somerset House, CID Grand Hornu, Garden Museum (Somerset, UK), Tower Hill Botanic Gardens, CID Grand Hornu, MIT Museum among other venues. He has also been invited to TEDx venues and regularly lectures internationally in universities and innovation centers.

Jiefu Zheng,
Prof. Pattie Maes
Prof. Joe Jacobson

Brooklyn, New York