30 n ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING July/August 2023 www.drivesncontrols.com World’s most remote robot automates Amazon planting In a jungle laboratory, located in a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon, a two-armed cobot (collaborative robot) is automating the seed-planting process – a task usually done entirely by hand. The cobot digs a hole in the soil, drops the seed in, compacts the soil on top and marks it with a colour-coded tag. The solar-powered cobot is part of a pilot project involving an American non-profit organisation called Junglekeepers and ABB Robotics, aimed at demonstrating the role that cloud technology can play in making reforestation faster, more efficient and scalable. Junglekeepers’ mission is to protect 55,000 acres (22,250 hectares) of Amazon rainforest and to reverse deforestation. In the project, an ABB YuMi cobot is helping to speed the process and allowing volunteers to spend their time and resources on more impactful work, such as patrolling the area to deter illegal loggers, educating locals on preserving the rainforest, and planting mature saplings. The autonomous cobot installation also overcomes the difficulty of finding people to stay and work in the remote jungle location. After its initial installation, the cobot can carry out its tasks autonomously, with only occasional troubleshooting when needed. The cobot is allowing Junglekeepers to replant an area the size of two soccer fields every day. It can plant a pot in 12 seconds, completing a box of 16 pots in 3½ minutes. In one session, it can plant 640 seed bags. “We have lost 20% of the total area of Amazon rainforest,” says Junglekeepers’ cofounder, Moshin Kazmi. “Without using technology today, conservation will be at a standstill. Having YuMi at our base is a great way to expose our rangers to new ways of doing things. It accelerates and expands our operations and advances our mission.” It is estimated that more than 870,000km2 of Amazon rainforest have been cleared since 1985 – an area larger than France, the UK and Belgium combined. “The Amazon is in danger,” warns Dennis del Castillo Torres, director of forest management research at the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute. “That’s why we need technology, science and local knowledge to work together to save it. Otherwise, we will be too late. “The rainforest can be saved, but we must bring together all of these elements to make a difference,” he adds. “It is very important to have a combination of high technology and conservation. There are many technologies that we can use to preserve the forest, and this robot can help a lot to reforest faster, but we have to be very selective. We have to use it in areas of high deforestation to speed up the process of replanting.” The project uses ABB’s RobotStudio Cloud technology, allowing the company’s robot experts 12,000km away in Sweden to simulate and refine the cobot’s operation, and to perform programming in real-time. The technology allows teams around the world to collaborate in real time. This remote way of programming enables new levels of flexibility and instant refinement, resulting in greater efficiency and resilience, and no loss of planting time. Based on more than 25 years of offline programming experience, RobotStudio is said to achieve 99% accuracy between simulation and reality. This allows users to reduce time needed to testing robotic systems by 50%, and to eliminate production downtime. “ABB’s collaboration with Junglekeepers demonstrates how robotics and cloud technology can play a central role in fighting deforestation as one of the major contributors to climate change,” says Sami Atiya, president of ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation. “Our pilot programme with the world’s most remote robot is helping to automate highly repetitive tasks, freeing up rangers to undertake more important work out in the rainforest, and helping them to conserve the land they live on.” Following the six-week pilot programme, ABB plans to explore opportunities to help Junglekeepers on a more extended basis, as well as exploring further opportunities for its robotic and cloud technologies to play a central role in driving sustainable transformation. n A two-armed cobot is helping to plant seedlings in a remote region of the Amazon in an attempt to reverse deforestation. The cobot has been programmed remotely from Sweden via the cloud. The two-armed cobot is helping to plant seedlings in a remote location on the Peruvian Amazon
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