Research program Plantenna on the way to an Internet Of Plants

With the award of a total of 22 million euros to 5 research programs within the theme 'High Tech for a Sustainable Future', the 4TU. Federation gives a strong boost to research into sustainable technology. TU Delft (Technical University Delft, Netherlands) coordinates one of the 5 research programs: Plantenna, in which sensor-equipped plants are networked: an 'internet of plants'.

The Plantenna program focuses on the highly interwoven problems of climate change, air pollution and food scarcity. Problems that will only increase further in view of the ever-growing world population and the continuing urbanization.

Central to the project is the development of sensor technology that will collect information about plants and the surrounding environment in plants. By linking such plants equipped with sensors in networks - an 'internet of plants' - the collected observations can be used for climate and weather monitoring, and for higher crop yields through more efficient fertilization and irrigation.

Cyberplant With new sensor technology it will soon be possible to observe these processes directly in the plant. Such a plant equipped with botanical sensors - a '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.
The sensors will also provide valuable data on climate, weather and the environment. Internet of plants Researchers from Delft University of Technology, the University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology and Wageningen University have joined forces to make this pioneering cyberplant technology possible.

For this they develop sensors that can take measurements directly in the juice stream or observe the movement of plants. Ideally, the different sensors in the plant form an autonomous and self-sufficient system. Therefore, it is also being investigated whether these sensors can take their energy directly from the plant via an electrochemical process, and whether they can communicate their measurement results to other plants, where the plant acts 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.

By: TU Delft