Centre for Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems, Örebro University, 701 82, Örebro, Sweden.
Man-Technology-Environment Research Centre, Örebro University, 701 82, Örebro, Sweden.
Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 13;11(1):23876. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02581-9.
This research evaluates the effect on herbal crops of mechanical stress induced by two specially developed robotic platforms. The changes in plant morphology, metabolite profiles, and element content are evaluated in a series of three empirical experiments, conducted in greenhouse and CNC growing bed conditions, for the case of basil plant growth. Results show significant changes in morphological features, including shortening of overall stem length by up to 40% and inter-node distances by up to 80%, for plants treated with a robotic mechanical stress-induction protocol, compared to control groups. Treated plants showed a significant increase in element absorption, by 20-250% compared to controls, and changes in the metabolite profiles suggested an improvement in plants' nutritional profiles. These results suggest that repetitive, robotic, mechanical stimuli could be potentially beneficial for plants' nutritional and taste properties, and could be performed with no human intervention (and therefore labor cost). The changes in morphological aspects of the plant could potentially replace practices involving chemical treatment of the plants, leading to more sustainable crop production.
本研究评估了两种专门开发的机器人平台所产生的机械应激对草本作物的影响。通过在温室和数控机床生长床条件下进行的一系列三项实证实验，评估了罗勒植物生长情况下植物形态、代谢物谱和元素含量的变化。结果表明，与对照组相比，用机器人机械应激诱导方案处理的植物在形态特征上发生了显著变化，包括总茎长缩短了 40%，节间距离缩短了 80%。处理过的植物的元素吸收量显著增加，比对照组增加了 20-250%，代谢物谱的变化表明植物的营养谱得到了改善。这些结果表明，重复的、机器人的、机械刺激可能对植物的营养和口感特性有益，并且可以在无人干预（因此没有劳动力成本）的情况下进行。植物形态方面的变化可能会取代对植物进行化学处理的做法，从而实现更可持续的作物生产。
