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SlothBot

conservation monitoring robotics slowness

SlothBot is an environmental monitoring robot designed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology interested in using ' slowness as a design principle'. The robot is solar-powered and only moves when necessary as it monitors temperature, weather , and carbon dioxide levels. SlothBot is currently installed in Storza Woods, a secondary growth hardwood forest that is part of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, with aims to move to other environments and conservation projects in South America.

Slowness as Design Principle

GeorgiaTech_SlothBot
SlothBot hangs from a cable between the trees in Storza Woods, Atlanta Botanical Garden. Image source: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech [photograph]. Retrieved 22 June 2022, from https://www.ece.gatech.edu/news/636291/slothbot-garden-demonstrates-hyper-efficient-conservation-robot

In a paper from 2019, Gennaro Notomista, Yousef Emam, and Magnus Egerstedt, roboticists working on SlothBot, describe how the robot is designed with long-term, low-powered environmental monitoring in mind. The authors note that SlothBot's mechanical and technological design prioritises energy efficiency and fail-safeness so as to be more self-sustaining than other technologies used in environmental and agricultural monitoring such as quadcopters.

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