A Robot Sloth To Rescue the Environment

Slowness and laziness become an added value, if you have to move around leaving the forest animals undisturbed, while saving energy. Here’s how Georgia Tech researchers developed a robot called Slothbot.

Slowness and energy saving as a lifestyle: SlothBot is a robot designed in the image and likeness of the sloth, a creature known for its being the exact opposite of dynamism. Engineers of the Georgia Institute of Technology created it in order to monitor the habitat of the forest, while leaving the animals undisturbed.

It feeds on solar energy and, with its slow pace (which is activated, only when strictly necessary), it consumes very little. The visitors of the Canopy Walk (the walk suspended among the trees) of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, will be the first ones to see it in action.

The robot could also be used in agriculture to monitor plants: its watchful eye could in fact discover diseases and pest infestations before men do, thus reducing costs but above all the need for pesticides.