Guttation Monitor: Wearable Guttation Sensor for Plant Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis

Qiuyu Lu, Lydia Yang, Aditi Maheshwari, Hengrong Ni, Tianyu Yu, ... Lining Yao.  arXiv preprint, arXiv:2302.04965. PDF | DOI

Abstract: Plant life plays a critical role in the ecosystem. However, it is difficult for humans to perceive plants' reactions because the biopotential and biochemical responses are invisible to humans. Guttation droplets contain various chemicals which can reflect plant physiology and environmental conditions in real-time. Traditionally, these droplets are collected manually and analyzed in the lab with expensive instruments. Here, we introduce the Guttation Monitor, an on-site and low-cost monitoring technology for guttation droplets. It consists of three parts 1) a paper-based microfluidic chip that can collect guttation droplets and perform colorimetric detection of six chemicals, 2) a self-contained and solar-powered camera module that can capture the result from the chip, and 3) an end-user app that can interpret the result. We discuss this technology's design and implementation, conduct evaluations on tomato plants, conduct interviews, and envision how such a technology could enhance the human-plant relationship in four dimensions.

(a) Close view of the guttation chip on the plant. (b) The camera module captures the colorimetric detection result and sends it to the server. (c) The server performs image processes and sends the monitoring result and interpretation to the end-user application.