# Topics > Robotics > Robotic plants >  Elowan, plant-robot hybrid, MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

## Airicist

Developer - MIT Media Lab

media.mit.edu/projects/elowan-a-plant-robot-hybrid

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## Airicist

Elowan: a plant-robot hybrid

Published on Nov 29, 2018




> Elowan is a cybernetic lifeform, a plant in direct dialogue with a machine. The plant is interfaced through its own electrochemical signals with a robotic extension that drives it towards light.
> 
> Plants have natural bioelectrochemical signals inside them. The get excited in response to environmental conditions and conduct these signals between tissues and organs. 
> 
> Elowan is an attempt to demonstrate what augmentation of nature could mean. Elowan’s robotic base is a new symbiotic association with a plant. The agency of movement rests with the plant based on its own bio-electrochemical signals. In this experimental setup, electrodes are inserted into stems and ground. The weak signals are then amplified and sent to the robot, making it move in respective directions.

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