Plants offer a paradoxical model for interaction: they are ambient, low-demand presences that nonetheless shape atmosphere, routines, and relationships through temporal rhythms and subtle expressions. In contrast, most human-robot interaction (HRI) has been grounded in anthropomorphic and zoomorphic paradigms, producing overt, high-demand forms of engagement. Using a Research through Design (RtD) methodology, we explore plants as metaphoric inspiration for HRI; we conducted iterative cycles of ideation, prototyping, and reflection to investigate what design primitives emerge from plant metaphors and morphologies, and how these primitives can be combined into expressive robotic forms. We present a suite of speculative, open-source prototypes that help probe plant-inspired presence, temporality, form, and gestures. We deepened our learnings from design and prototyping through prototype-centered workshops that explored people's perceptions and imaginaries of plant-inspired robots. This work contributes: (1) Set of plant-inspired robotic artifacts; (2) Designerly insights on how people perceive plant-inspired robots; and (3) Design consideration to inform how to use plant metaphors to reshape HRI.

翻译：植物为交互提供了一种看似矛盾的模型：它们作为环境性、低需求的存在，却通过时间节律与微妙表达塑造着氛围、日常惯例与关系。相比之下，大多数人机交互（HRI）研究基于拟人与拟动物范式，形成了显性、高需求的交互形态。本研究采用"通过设计进行研究"（RtD）方法，探索将植物作为人机交互的隐喻灵感来源；通过迭代式的构思、原型制作与反思循环，我们探究了从植物隐喻与形态中可提取哪些设计基元，以及如何将这些基元组合成富有表现力的机器人形态。我们提出了一套思辨性的开源原型，用以探索植物启发的存在性、时间性、形态与姿态。通过以原型为中心的工作坊，我们深入探讨了人们对植物启发机器人的感知与想象，从而深化了从设计与原型制作中获得的认知。本研究的贡献包括：（1）一套植物启发的机器人实体原型；（2）关于人们如何感知植物启发机器人的设计洞察；（3）指导如何运用植物隐喻重塑人机交互的设计考量。