Autumn Show 2026
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Heliosphere is a deployable soft-robotic enclosure that creates plant specific microclimates within conventional glasshouses. Conceived as an AI-enabled gardener, it translates local environmental data and plant needs into spatial and climatic responses. Using Kew’s Temperate House as a case study, the project addresses the limits of building wide climate control, which cannot meet every species’ requirements. It proposes a local, reversible intervention with minimal impact on the historic structure. The system develops from RC2 Soft Robotic Architecture’s research into lightweight, adaptive and pneumatic structures. Bending-active fibreglass rods, heat-sealed TPU chambers and a transparent PET membrane form a pressure-responsive enclosure. Changes in air pressure alter its height, curvature, openings and volume, regulating temperature, humidity and airflow around an individual plant instead of conditioning the entire glasshouse.
Heliosphere creates an adjustable microclimate around an individual plant, concentrating environmental control only where it is needed.
Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, heatwaves and extreme storms. These events disrupt temperature, humidity, water availability and other conditions.
Future systems must therefore become lighter, modular and responsive, using sensors, automation and adaptable envelopes to provide climate only where and when it is required.
Heliosphere is a lightweight, deployable enclosure designed to create an adjustable microclimate around individual plants.The components form a coherent hybrid structure which can create a controllable plant-scale environment.
These components form a coherent hybrid structure in which frame elasticity, membrane tension and pneumatic actuation work together to produce a responsive, modular and independently controllable plant-scale environment.
Pressure sensors and manifolds improve airflow control, while the transparent base makes the system easier to inspect, maintain and integrate with environmental sensors.
The enclosure is installed beneath the BodyLab camera array and fitted with forty passive markers.
The enclosure is installed beneath the BodyLab camera array and fitted with forty passive markers. Multiple sensors are positioned around the prototype so actuation, shape change and surface temperature can be recorded together.
Real-time environmental data are processed by the control engine and translated into robotic commands, allowing the pneumatic enclosure to respond to plant-specific requirements.
Real-time environmental data are processed by the control engine and translated into robotic commands, allowing the pneumatic enclosure to respond to plant-specific requirements.
Heliosphere can be placed in various traditional greenhouse environments. It helps new plants adapt quickly to their surroundings.