About
Symbiobot is a smart plant care system designed to enhance emotional well-being and promote sustainability for urban residents. Through a sensor-embedded pot and companion app, it transforms daily plant care into meaningful interactions that foster empathy, support and sustainable goals in daily life.
Development Log
Prototype Design
Symbiobot is composed of two modules. The control module is used for tracking plant health as well as enabling visual and verbal interactions between users and the plant. Through the mobility module and a corresponding joystick, users can guide the plant around indoor and outdoor spaces to further foster companionship and care.
Why Symbiobot?
In the community empowerment fair, students admire the landscapes on our emotional therapy website while rarely visiting real green spaces.
The fast-paced urban life increases stress, and disconnects us from the natural world.
Symbiobot isn’t here to simulate nature, but to build close human-nature companionship.
SymbioGrowth
Symbiobot integrates professional-grade sensors that track soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and UV exposure—key indicators of plant health. These real-time data through the Arduino IDE system and compared with expert-backed benchmarks to offer users precise plant care suggestions.
Prototype fabricated & assembled using 3D printing
Circuit Connection & Testing
Code Snippet
(Time Display & UV Reading)
Leveraging a text-to-text LLM and adaptive music feedback, Symbiobot translates sensor data and dialogues between users and the plant into self-designed emotional expressions to reflect the plant’s “mood.”
SymbioDary
Emotionally Intelligent Human–Plant Connection
By reflecting plant health and daily interactions in the SymbioDary, it soften the boundary between users and the robot while cultivating empathy and companionship.
SymbioCommunity
SymbioAPP features a shared community circle where users participate in monthly plant-related challenges and build friend groups. Users can interact with others by leaving messages and exchange gifts, promoting a supportive and inclusive social ecosystem.
Active Engagement Through Mobility
Beyond visual and auditory feedback, Symbiobot promotes physical engagement. A programmed joystick allows users to guide their plant companion around indoor and outdoor environments, encouraging touch, movement, and care.
Our Team
I initiated and 4-member interdisciplinary team under the X Academy Capstone Program to develop Symbiobot for 14 days. The team brought together expertise in mechanical design, software development, and environmental psychology, including two college undergraduates and two senior high school students. Right now, I structured our collaboration around biweekly meetings focused on iterative prototyping and marketing campaigns.
Awards &
Incubation
Our team achieved the X Academy Top 1st Pinnacle Achievement Award. Currently, we are discussing with interested sponsors from the Institute of Industrial Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University to pursue incubation.
Future Development
Refined Voice Interaction System
Our team plans to integrate more advanced speaker hardware to transform from textual feedback into verbal contact between the user and the robot, enabling smoother and closer communication.
Enhanced Personalization features
To improve consumer satisfaction, we decide to create MBTI-based plant personality by incorporating MBTI-based large language models and refining the output based on user feedback.
Smart Pot &
Gamified App System
Partnering with NGOs, our mobile application will feature a plant-pet nurturing game. To achieve growth milestones, users need to take great care for their plants and perform sustainable daily habits or participate in volunteering activities, contributing to social welfare.
Business Prospects
Pilot User Network
To refine Symbiobot’s design and functionality, we hope to conduct in-depth market and consumer analysis to understand user needs. Based on initial consumer outreach, we want to build up a piloting user network to gather feedback for continuous product improvement.
Character Brand Building
By introducing a unique character brand and opening pop-up stores in first-tier cities, my team hopes to enhance Symbiobot’s recognition and popularity to engage core consumers.
Influencer Marketing
Symbiobot will form collaboration with live streamers on social media platforms including Xiaohongshu and Bilibili to post recommendation vlogs and first-hand user experience. With the help of network effects online, we can expand product outreach and attract a wider range of potential consumers.
Partnership with Corporations & NGOs
In the long term, my team will seek partnership with socially responsible corporations further accumulating social influence and impacts. We will also cooperate with sustainability-oriented NGOs to engage more consumers and raise environmental awareness.
User Ecosystem Expansion
With the upgraded features in SymbioCommunity, we seek to attract new consumers through referrals from and connection from our existing user community.