Hyper-Efficient 'SlothBot' Uses Innovative Power Management Technology
SlothBot, a slow-moving and energy-efficient robot developed at Georgia Tech , is being tested at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Designed to take advantage of the low-energy lifestyle of real sloths, SlothBot can linger in the trees to monitor plants, animals, carbon dioxide levels, and other environmental information. The robot is powered by solar panels and moves along a cable strung between trees. The robot features novel power management technology; it's programmed to move only when necessary, and will locate sunlight when its batteries need recharging. SlothBot’s 3D-printed shell protects its motors, gearing, batteries, and sensing equipment from the weather.
Transcript
00:00:04 - The SlothBot is unlike any other robot out there. It's a hyper-energy efficient robot that lives amongst the trees and helps us do things like environmental monitoring and conservation work by just being present amongst the trees, measuring interesting things in the world around it. The idea to the SlothBot actually came when I was in Costa Rica,
00:00:28 when I got mildly obsessed with sloths, because I could not understand how these creatures could exist. They're just tasty pieces of meat sitting up in the trees, waiting to be eaten by eagles or jaguars, but turns out they are strategically slow on purpose. So I started reading up about slowness as a design paradigm and decided you know what, no,
00:00:50 if I'm gonna deploy robots that are out somewhere for really long periods of time, they don't need to be fast. That's not how we typically do things, but sometimes, being slow is actually better. The botanical gardens here in Atlanta are quite special, I think. There are lots of people going through it, there are lots of kids being there,
00:01:10 so just being present in the garden gives us an opportunity to showcase our technology. By teaming up with them, we immediately got access not only to an interesting facility, but a real set of dedicated conservation biologists that could help us ensure that what we're doing actually is relevant. - What is outside of the box? And this is totally outside of the box.
00:01:34 When Magnus came to us, we were like oh, robotics, that's, you know, what can we do together, but I think that what it allows us to do is break down some of those barriers in science to be able to really merge exciting technology and robotics and exciting innovations that we're making in conservation. We are in a critical moment in the earth's history, where we are experiencing rampant biodiversity loss, nearly a quarter of all plants are at risk
00:02:03 of extinction. What the SlothBot will help us do is collect data to better conserve those species, and that's one of the things with conservation and how we move forward with this kind of really unique melding of robotics technology and conservation. I think that's actually where we can make meaningful impacts and how we can move the dial.
00:02:23 - I really think it's fascinating to think about robots as being part of an environment, being part of an ecosystem, and this idea of connecting environmental work and biology and the sciences with robotics, I think is very, very powerful, and I'm hoping that, thanks to SlothBot, we're gonna get an entirely new generation that's really interested in what can robotics do
00:02:48 to make the world better.