There’s no doubt that technology and gadgets can be smart and logical, but sometimes they can be whimsical, traditional, even a bit creepy. The PlantBot seems to fit into all these descriptions, and best yet you can put in a different plant every fortnight or so and change its character every time! The PlanBot is robot that mimics a piece of furniture’s overall aesthetic with its wooden legs and body and a woven-basket holder for your chosen plant.

With legs at each of its four corners, it looks quite intimidating once it starts moving in search for just the perfect amount of sunlight for your plant. If it starts moving towards that patch of sunlight in front of your feet, try not to be scared off – it’s only doing what it’s programmed to do after all. The way it’s designed, most people will think it’s only a strangely designed piece of plant potting, until it starts scurrying about.

Perhaps it is not as geeky as a robotic guard dog with email capabilities and red LEDs for eyes, yet certainly more practical and good looking. Change the plant “installed” in it, and you can its “flavor”, so to speak.

Unfortunately, no details of its internal workings were given, but it should be simple enough – some circuitry for detecting sunlight, actuators for each leg and the requisite balance algorithms, batteries for power. The genius in this is how it’s designed, and how novel it is – now all that’s left is to install some discreet solar panels along the body to take care of power and give the robot an additional incentive to look for the brightest patch of sunlight in your room.