Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Robotic Sensing and Stimuli Provision for Guided Plant Growth
08:02

Robotic Sensing and Stimuli Provision for Guided Plant Growth

Published on: July 1, 2019

Osmotic actuation modelling for innovative biorobotic solutions inspired by the plant kingdom

E Sinibaldi1, G L Puleo, F Mattioli

  • 1Center for Micro-BioRobotics@SSSA, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, I-56025 Pontedera, Italy.

Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
|May 8, 2013
PubMed

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A number of natural and synthetic materials exhibit selective permeation, meaning that only molecules or ions of a certain size, shape, polarity, charge, and so forth, are capable of passing through (permeating) the material. Biological cell membranes provide elegant examples of selective permeation in nature, while dialysis tubing used to remove metabolic wastes from blood is a more simplistic technological example. Regardless of how they may be fabricated, these materials are generally...
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