Results 1 - 2 of 2
Project Persons Year Tags
Jurema Action Plant Bert van DuijnIvan Henriques (V2_) 2011 biology, environment, biodiversity, interaction, environmentalism, prototype, plant, robot
Plants are moving creatures. Their movements generally remains invisible to us, because their muscle and nerve-like systems operate at a very slow timescale and their rooting in soil confines their motion to the movement of branches and leaves. These restrictions give plants an enormous disadvantage compared to their main aggressors: animals and humans, in many instances resulting in a loss of biodiversity and even extinction. In the prototype that Ivan Henriques developed during the V2_ Summer Sessions a plant is provided with an off-the-shelf motor system. The potential of the plant to sense when it is being touched is used to set the motor in action. By doing so, the plant is able to speedily drive away in response to human touch.
Protei Cesar Harada et al (V2_) 2011 environmentalism, open source, open hardware, drone, renewable energy, oil spills, gulf mexico
Protei is an oil spill cleaning machine. Protei is a family of unmanned robots (drone) that sails. It is articulated and some versions are inflatable. Oil drifts downwind, so Protei need to be able to sail upwind to capture more oil. Protei is an innovation using conventional technologies, it is therefore immediately possible to build it at a low cost with conventional materials. Protei is developed Open hardware, so everybody can use, modify and distribute our designs. Besides oil spill cleaning many other applications are envisoned for this revolutionary drone.