Birmensdorf ZH/Zurich – Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have developed a new type of drone for determining species diversity in forests. It also makes its way through branches.
A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and the University of Pisa has developed a drone that can make its way through branches. The model was the way animals move. This is an important step towards recording biodiversity in remote areas, according to the WSL press release.
Drones generally perceive bushes and branches as obstacles to be avoided. But it is precisely in the midst of dense vegetation that there is valuable data for monitoring biodiversity. According to WSL, the researchers were inspired by animals. When animals move through vegetation, they can feel the contact on their bodies and react to it. Accordingly, the researchers equipped the drone with the ability to recognize contacts with the environment all over its body. The drone is streamlined and made of low-friction material. "Our work makes a first contribution to the monitoring of previously inaccessible areas," said Emanuele Aucone, lead author of the study on the project published in the journal "Nature Communications".
The team from the Environmental Robotics Lab at ETH and WSL had already collected environmental DNA from individual branches using drones in earlier studies, but were unable to penetrate any further into the treetops. "Flexible obstacles such as branches are a particular challenge because they cause the drone to vibrate. We therefore had to make the drone more specific," Aucone is quoted as saying.
The researcher sees potential applications for such a drone beyond biodiversity monitoring in precision agriculture or search and rescue missions. ce/gba