Compliant plant wearables for localized microclimate and plant growth monitoring

Abstract

Flexible electronics: plants can now wear sensors The application of flexible electronics has been shifted from epidermal sensors to the surface of individual plant for microclimate and growth condition monitoring. Prof M. M. Hussain and colleagues from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia develop wearable electronic system for plants with localized monitoring function. They borrow the wisdom from human wearable electronics to adopt and re-design the flexible, lightweight and biocompatible materials and electronic components to match the field requirements of plants-wearable electronics. They show integrated temperature, humidity and strain sensing and real-time plant growth monitoring and diagnosing. The approach reported in this work is potentially scalable to be applied to large fields and opens up the possibilities to customized investigation and optimization in plant sciences.