Robots planting trees? New concept tree-planting robots may save endangered forests

The proverb "Planting trees and making the world green" seems to be about to be realized by automatic tree-planting robots .

Trees play a vital role in ecosystems - whether providing shade on sunny days, serving as homes for bird families or recycling carbon dioxide from the air. But forests are being lost due to exploitative logging practices, accelerating desertification and making grasslands and shrublands drier.

As forests decline around the world, restoring biodiversity in these areas by planting new trees is a crucial first step, but growing seedlings in these arid environments can be time-consuming and laborious.

Therefore, it is urgent to design a robot that can automatically plant trees. Recently, researchers from Firat University and Adiyaman University in Turkey have developed a prototype of a tree-planting robot that can work continuously for 24 hours. The robot is equipped with wheels and a hydraulic drill, which can plant seedlings in barren environments such as deserts.

According to relevant experts, this type of tree planting robot is very suitable for repetitive and long-term tree planting work, especially for areas with local labor shortages. After all, human workers also need to eat and sleep, while tree planting robots can work day and night.

Of course, there are still many challenges to making these robots operate independently. Considering sustainable development, in future design iterations, researchers hope to take into account the diversity of planting environments and planting types. For example, the robot needs to be equipped with various sensors to have environmental perception capabilities and adopt appropriate planting strategies according to different terrains. Suspension can be added to the robot to achieve better all-terrain driving.

Or adding solar panels to supplement electricity and allow the robot to operate in situations where other fuel sources may not be readily available, helping to ensure the robot remains carbon neutral while planting.

Other issues that need attention include how to work collaboratively with human workers.

However, experts remain optimistic about the prospects of tree-planting robots. He believes that through continuous improvement, automatic planting robots will be widely used in the future to restore endangered forests, realizing the beautiful vision of "robots planting trees and greening the earth for all".

Let's wait and see, while human workers can take a nap in the shade, tree-planting robots will continue their "careers".