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Sunbot Swarm
motors, light sensors, cardboard, acrylic, found objects, plants
2017–2019

Sunbot Swarm is a small swarm of robotic houseplants which explores the idea of plant independence and mass migration.

Sunbot Swarm derives from an earlier investigation, Sunbot and Shadebot, simple robots designed to help houseplants tour the outside world, which use photocells (light sensors) to seek out desirable lighting conditions. Although Sunbots are very simple, when exploring a complex lighting environment, they appear to exhibit complex behavior.

By creating replicable multiples of the robots, the goal of the Swarm is to great a strange, visual mass of autonomous houseplants, an absurdist vision of plant migration, performed in public space. This project took place across several iterations and is ongoing, as I sought to build up a critical mass of replicable robots, using as many recycled materials as possible. Further documentation of this process and tutorials can be found at plantbots.org.

Swarm I

The first version of the Swarm was created in a workshop at Open Source Gallery, where participants constructed robot bodies out of recycled materials. An interesting byproduct of this process, was that it resulted in a series of robots with sensors at different heights, so they were effectively unable to see each other. Video of the first 6 bots, over the course of about 2 hours, shows how they eventually steam roll each other as the sunlight disappears.

Sunbot Swarm II

The next iteration of the swarm was constructed from laser cut slice forms, so that all of the sensors were at the same height. Video of this test shot inside further highlighted the need for an interesting lighting condition. In the simple lighting condition of my apartment, the behavior of these moe stable robots was very predictable (boring).

Finally, the sunbots were tested outside, with plastic domes added for both warmth on a cool March day, and as a further visual exploration of the plant "cyborg" (a term that is rooted in space travel). Further documentation from this test can be found at plantbots.org. A final iteration of the plantbots was explored in a more speculative/narrative format, in Room on Mars.