She designs a robot that takes root on its own like a plant to colonize Mars

After robots inspired by insects, fish, dogs and other animals, here’s a whole new kind of robot inspired by plants. This project, which may seem somewhat silly at first glance, is the brainchild of Barbara Mazoulay, a biologist and engineer. It is currently being developed at the Italian Institute of Technology.

The idea is to create roots that grow into the ground. The robot uses the principle of 3D printer filament. The root consists of one end mounted on bearings, which can rotate independently of the rest. The robot’s first motor sends a plastic thread towards the end. Just behind this end is a resistor that heats the filament to make it soft and sticky and a second motor that pushes the filament out through a small hole.

In the same lab, Barbara Mazoulay is developing plant robots that are able to root themselves in the ground by detecting the level of moisture. © Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

3D printed roots

Plastic strands are deposited behind the end by twisting to form a tube, much like wrapping a rope around a stick. Each new layer sticks to the old one before it cools and hardens. The pressure will force the tip to move forward little by little into the ground, causing the root to “grow”. Instead of breaking through obstacles like an auger, it will follow the stem through cracks like plant roots. Such a device could be used for environmental monitoring, for example to measure concentrations of toxic products in soil, or to find water in barren soil.

But Barbara Mazoulay’s real goal is space exploration. She hopes her idea will eventually be used to install exploration robots on Earth, whether on Mars or a comet, and to analyze, or even fertilize, Earth. Robot plants can also be used to “grow” a network of tubes, through which cables or fluids can be passed. This would, for example, make it possible to create an infrastructure before the first astronauts reach Mars.