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

摘要

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.