Support localization strategy for growing robots aided by light perception inspired by climbing plants

Abstract

This paper investigates the emergence of high-level behaviors, i.e., support localization, in climbing plants upon the interaction of low-level behaviors, i.e., tropisms, activated by environmental stimuli. Light plays antagonistically in phototropic -attraction to light- and skototropic -attraction to shadow- responses in plant shoots. Here, we hypothesize that climbing plants must find a trade-off between shade avoidance and attraction for support localization. A plant-inspired robotic platform with light-sensing capability is used as a robo-physical system to study the possible role of this environmental stimulus in climbing plants' behavior. Out of this analysis, we propose a biomimetic control that can ultimately be integrated into plant-inspired growing robots for improving their ability in environment exploration and mapping.