WTH? Watch As A Plant Controls A Robot Arm Swinging A Machete

What happens when you combine Day Of The Triffids with Terminator?

David Bowen’s installation, ‘Plant Machete,’ enables a living plant to move a machete through an industrial robot‘s bionic-like arm. The installation implements a control system that measures electrical noises found in the living philodendron. This system uses an open-source microcontroller connected to the plant, which reads varying resistance signals across its leaves.

The machine’s movements are accomplished by using a custom technology that translates electrical signals from the plant into real-time motion. Embedded patch sensors pick up electric signals from the leaves and transmit them to the machine that contains several joints that determine how the machete swings, jabs, slices, and interacts in space.