Camera-Based Bi-Axial Force Measurement: Tracking 3D Plant-Obstacle Interactions 🌿📡
- PlantHouse Enterprise
- 12 hours ago
- 1 min read
Published on: 27 October 2025
This video demonstrates a novel technical innovation for measuring the extremely weak (sub-milliNewton) forces applied by freely moving plant organs, such as a growing shoot, as they interact with their environment.
Unlike traditional methods that require tethering the plant to a sensor, this system uses a modular, camera-based setup to track the three-dimensional deflection of a pendulum rod (the obstacle) by a plant shoot in real-time.
Key Features Shown in the Video:
3D Tracking: Orthogonal cameras capture the movement of both the plant shoot and the pendulum rod simultaneously.
Bi-Axial Data: The system extracts the force applied by the plant over two axes, providing a more comprehensive view of growth and turgor pressures compared to single-axis measurements.
Non-Tethered Interaction: The Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) shoot is shown moving freely and pushing against the pendulum during inherent circumnutation movements.
Data Extraction: The footage illustrates how rod deflection angles are used to calculate the precise force generated by the plant over time through a mechanical torque equilibrium equation.
This technology provides a critical foundation for deciphering the thigmotropic responses that climbing plants use to assess their surroundings—an open question in plant biology since the time of Charles Darwin.
Citation:
Amir Ohad, Yasmine Meroz, Camera-based bi-axial measurement of weak forces generated by freely moving plant organs, Journal of Experimental Botany, Volume 77, Issue 4, 12 February 2026, Pages 985–994, https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf476
Keywords: Biomechanics, circumnutations, force measurement, mechanical interactions, thigmotropism, tropisms, twining plants
Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons
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