AirSeed Technologies, CAL International partner to plant 100M trees with drones

-
(From left to right) Pieter Van Zyl, Mechatronics Engineer, and Andries Louw, co-founder, director and chief pilot, with the AirSeed Drone. | Source: AirSeed Technologies

(From left to right) Pieter Van Zyl, Mechatronics Engineer, and Andries Louw, co-founder, director and chief pilot, with the AirSeed Drone. | Source: AirSeed Technologies

AirSeed Technologies has partnered with CAL International to design and engineer a seed pod delivery system for AirSeed’s tree-planting aerial drones. 

The companies began collaborating when AirSeed, an Australian drone startup, approached CAL International, a British engineering and smart tech firm, to ask for help in refining the planting system for its drone technology. 

In particular, AirSeed needed to improve the way its existing seed pod delivery system, the AirSeed drone, worked for users and how well it was manufactured.

“Working with CAL, they have managed to take an existing delivery system design and turn it into a unique pod delivery mechanism,” Andrew Walker, AirSeed co-founder, said. “The design and engineering that has gone into the aerial platform from CAL also means we can produce a great number of AirSeed aerial platforms and deploy these into the field quicker to speed up the process of reforestation which will help us in a race against time to mitigate climate change.”

The drone uses artificial and data intelligence to operate a payload and delivery system that identifies and locates target areas with GPS coordinates. The AirSeed team is careful when picking which areas to plant, taking into consideration what plant species are already in the area. 

The drone drops carbon pods designed specifically for the kind of soil it will be planted in, ensuring trees have the best chance of growth. The pod also protects the seed from combative elements, like insects, rodents and birds, during its germination cycle. When it rains, the carbon begins absorbing water, which allows the seed to germinate. 

AirSeed’s drones take off autonomously and follow a pre-programmed flight plan while dropping an exact quantity of carbon pods at a rate of two pods per second. The drone follows a predetermined planting pattern before landing.

After planting, the drone uses its mapping system to pinpoint the pods, taking into account its flight trajectory and the wind conditions on the day of planting. Knowing where the pods are located makes it possible for the team to send drones on return flights to map tree growth. 

“When AirSeed explained what they hoped to achieve, it was a challenge that we were delighted to take on,” Cliff Kirby, CAL International founder and engineer, said. “The huge significance and impact that this innovation can bring in the fight against climate change is truly global. Together with AirSeed based in Australia and South Africa and CAL based in the UK, this is a global collaboration and the very definition of the art of the possible.

With a two-person team, the AirSeed drones can plant 40,000 pods a day. The company’s goal is to plant 100 million trees by 2024. AirSeed’s platform is 80% cheaper than current planting methods, which can be and labor-intensive, and 25 times faster than manual planting. 

The post AirSeed Technologies, CAL International partner to plant 100M trees with drones appeared first on The Robot Report.



from The Robot Report - Robotics News, Analysis & Research https://ift.tt/ks9LDUx
via artificialconference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chipotle testing avocado processing robot in test kitchen

-
Image
Chipotle Mexican Grill announced Autocado, an avocado processing cobotic prototype that cuts, cores, and peels avocados before they are hand mashed to create the restaurant’s famous guacamole. The prototype, developed in collaboration with Vebu , is currently being tested at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine , California.  How Autocado works  A team member loads Autocado with a full case of ripe avocados and selects the size setting. Autocado can hold up to 25 lbs. of avocados at once. One at a time, avocados are vertically oriented, then transferred to the processing device. The avocados are sliced in half. Their cores and skin are automatically removed, and the waste is discarded.  The fruit is safely collected in a stainless-steel bowl at the bottom of the device.  A team member removes the bowl of avocado fruit and moves it to the counter where they add additional ingredients and hand mash the avocados to make Chipotle’s signature guacamole.  How the Autocado idea s
Read more

Inside Comaus testing of Intrinsic Flowstate

-
Image
Intrinsic tested its latest platform and Flowstate with Comau , an Italian-based robot manufacturer and global systems integrator. Comau has been working with Intrinsic for several years now to validate Intrinsic’s platform technology and developer product, Flowstate, through real-world use cases.  Flowstate, announced earlier this year in May , is a robotic software development platform. It’s Intrinsic’s first developer product built on the Intrinsic platform. Comau was also introduced as the company’s first industry partner in May.  The Intrinsic Flowstate software  adds a layer of abstraction to traditional robotic software tools with the goal of reducing the development skillset required while making it easier than ever before to program a robot in simulation. “Partnering with Comau over the years has brought our team a tremendous amount of expertise, knowledge, and real-world use cases to focus our efforts on. We’re excited for what’s next and what it will mean to the solutio
Read more

ABB launches Flexley mobile robots, completing rebranding of ASTI AMRs

-
Image
Rebranded ABB Flexley autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) completes the integration of ASTI into ABB Robotics business. | Credit: ABB ABB launched its first range of rebranded Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) following its acquisition of mobile robot leader ASTI Mobile Robotics in 2021 for $190M . ASTI Mobile Robotics’ solutions are now rebranded and integrated into ABB’s portfolio, grouped under the Flexley name, indicating the flexibility of operations that the AMRs offer. The first rebranded models to be released, Flexley Tug and Flexley Mover, cover applications including towing, trolley transportation up to 5,350 lbs (2000 kg), as well as lifting and transporting racks, containers and pallets of 4,000 lbs (1,500 kg). The ABB Flexley Mover (l) and ABB Flexley Tug (r) become the first rebranded ABB AMRs to be released. | Credit: ABB ABB joins OMRON corporation as the second automation solutions company to offer a complete lineup of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), industrial robo
Read more