A team of scientists and engineers have designed solar panels that can increase the amounts of energy they can produce by mimicking the ability of sunflowers to take advantage of daylight hours to absorb more energy. Their system — called SunBot, for sunflower-like biomimetic omnidirectional tracker — uses temperature-sensitive materials to make tiny ‘stems’ that bend toward a bright light source. The system could be used to improve a variety of solar technologies. Fulton Schools Professor Hanqing Jiang, Associate Professor Xu Wang and doctoral student Hamsini Gopalakrishna are members of the research team.

See Also: Sunflowers inspire light-tracking solar material (video), Chemical & Engineering News, November 13

Fake Sunflowers that Easily Bend Towards the Sun Could Generate Efficient Solar Energy, News18 (India) November 13