GAIA - Saving office plants

We’re always talking about smart robots, smart houses, smart cars, but now it’s the turn of the tired plant that sits on your desk, the one that doesn’t get any sunlight and is losing its leaves.

Matthias Schmitt is volunteering to rescue these lost souls in his church of smart plant pots.

This young engineer, who describes himself as “a geek and a transhumanist”, launched his start-up, Still Human Robotics, in 2015 after a successful collaboration with engineers from Robot Lab that enabled him to pool his skills with those of mechanical engineering specialists.

The result couldn’t come as more of a surprise: a plant pot injected with a solid dose of AI and all kinds of sensors that collect and respond to information about the plant’s environment.

If the plant is thirsty, it waters itself from its reservoir, if it needs fertilising, it sends you a text message and if the weather’s fine it moves to where it can catch the sun’s rays.

It’s easy to understand where this technology is going: towards the development of intelligent, self-maintaining and self-sufficient cultivation systems.

But in the meantime, the Biom pot has been developed for house plants, raising awareness about plant care issues by changing colour according to the plant’s needs.

Here’s hoping Still Human Robotics won’t replace the family pet in your affections.