Planting trees is back-breaking, repetitive work — but if two students from the Canadian University of Victoria have their way, robots will assist tree planters in the future.
Third-year electrical engineering students Nick Birch and Tyler Rhodes have developed a prototype robot that is able to plant tree seedlings.
The ‘TreeRover’ is a four-wheeled, battery-powered vehicle about the size of a go-cart. It carries a tree planting mechanism which holds a magazine of ten seedlings. Compressed air is used to drive a hollow spike into the ground, which then releases a seedling. Another arm then comes and taps the earth to secure the seedling, and the robot uses its electric motors to drive to the next site.
Planting the entire 10-tree magazine takes about 15 minutes, according to Birch.
Birch and Rhodes developed the robot as part of a self-directed entrepreneurial work term, during which students use their own funds to create a concept and bring it to the prototype stage.
Click here for source (CBC News)
Photo: CBC News / Nick Birch
