Currently, global climate change, especially land desertification, is one of the worse ecocrises facing humanity. The "New Silk Road Economic Belt" in the "One Belt and One Road" initiative led by China is also facing land desertification and ecological problems.
Land desertification has led to economic development backwardness and agglomeration of poor people in many areas. And even often induced serious social and security problems. It has become an important factor restricting the development and stability of the regions along the "One Belt and One Road".
Tree planting robot
In order to turn more deserts into oasis, the scientific research team of software engineering institute of East China Normal University, which is lead by Professor Zhang Xinyu, took the newly designed and developed ‘Tree Planting Robot’ to do the planting tests in Alxa, Inner Mongolia.
The design and development of the ‘Tree Planting Robot’ comes from the laboratory’s ‘robot cluster project to support large-scale desert ecological restoration’. Four postgraduate students from the institute of software engineering, Yao Zhao, Tang Jingtao, Xiao Jianye and Sun Chun have been researching project for more than a year under the lead of Professor Zhang Xinyu. The robots currently developed include hole digging robot, planting robot, watering robot and monitoring robot. The robot can achieve centimeter level positioning though the global GPS positioning system. It can work all-weather. During the plant growth period, remote management, monitoring, big data analysis can achieve real-time accurate positioning and regular observation of plant.
Under the sun, a half-human tall robot with a large spiral drill, drive by photovoltaic solar energy, is diligently digging tree pits in this expansive Alxa desert. It drilled a pit as deep as forty to fifty centimeters in just one minute. Overlook from the air, this pits are neat and full of technological beauty, and become a beautiful scenery line in Alxa desert.
AgileX robotics mobile robot chassis -SCOUT2.0
This “planting robot” by East China Normal University is small in sized, light in weight and have small damage to fragile deserts. It can realize unmanned, large-scale and all-day operations. All of this is inseparable from the support of the mobile chassis SCOUT2.0.
SCOUT2.0 is based on a new energy consumption design, compact body, low energy consumption, equipped with a new cooling system and safety protection system, can well adapt to the desert environment. Four-wheel drive, differential rotation, abundant power, can easy to control complex application environment. Standard protocol and CAN bus support rapid secondary development. With the largest standardization of irrigation-free planting device, and use of intelligent monitoring platform can increase planting efficiency by more than 100 times and increase survival rate to more than 95%.
Whether it is remote desert administration or patrol security in the park, robots are gradually entering our lives and provide more convenient and efficient services for human production and life. The foundation for the success of industry applications is inseparable from an excellent mobile platform, excellent product development support, and even the participation of ecological partners. AgileX Robotics is in the same line with pioneer, and practices the purpose of “Let intelligent robots further liberate human productivity” in a variety of industry scenarios, so that mobile can carry more possibilities of future.
