Creating intelligent plants with botanical sensors
Sensor technology
The Plantenna program focuses on the highly related challenges of climate change, air pollution and food scarcity, problems that will likely only increase with the growing world population and continuing urbanization. Central to the project is the development of sensor technology that will collect information about plants and the surrounding environment. By linking plants equipped with sensors in networks – creating an 'internet of plants' - the collected observations can be used for climate and weather monitoring, and for getting higher crop yields through more efficient fertilization and irrigation.
Crop yield
Global food production is lagging behind the rise in demand. In order to guarantee food security for a world population that will soon exceed 9 billion, the crop yield of existing agricultural areas must increase. The availability of new agricultural land and irrigation sources is limited after all. A changing climate, changing weather patterns and ongoing urbanization only make that challenge bigger. In the future, the vast majority of humankind will live in urban ecosystems, while floods, drought and environmental pollution endanger both people and crops. How can we improve climate-proofing and livability in such increasingly self-sufficient urban agglomerations, and how can we increase the productivity of agriculture and horticulture?
Cyber plants
All kinds of physical, chemical and biological processes take place inside plants. With new sensor technology it will soon be possible to observe these processes directly in the plant. A plant equipped with botanical sensors - the 'cyber plant' - can then provide information about the moisture content, the cell composition and the quality of the crop itself, but also about environmental factors such as soil and air quality, wind speed, solar strength or rainfall. With fast and reliable data on the condition of the plant, crops can be watered and fertilized in a timely manner. The sensors will also provide valuable data on climate, weather and the environment. Accurate weather forecasts are of great importance for agriculture, for timely sowing and harvesting, and with better environmental monitoring we can also work on a sustainable and healthy environment in the long term.
Internet of plants
Researchers from the four universities of technology - the Delft University of Technology, the University of Twente, the Eindhoven University of Technology and Wageningen University - have joined forces to make this pioneering cyber plant technology possible. They are developing sensors that can take measurements directly in the sap flow inside plants, while others observe the minute movements of plants. Ideally, the different sensors in the plant will form an autonomous and self-sufficient system. Therefore, it is also being investigated whether these sensors can be powered by the plant via an electro-chemical process, and whether they can communicate their measurement results to other plants, with the plant acting as an antenna. Hence the name Plantenna: an antenna that collects information from the plant itself and about its environment and then sends it as part of an antenna network. Together these cyber plants can form such a network - an 'internet of plants' - that can deliver a variety of information about crops, the environment, weather and climate that was previously unavailable. Examples include finer networks that gather accurate data about the (urban) microclimate, which can lead to better local weather forecasts.
Source: TU Delft