Professor Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Abstract: In the last few years, drones have showcased new applications that were unheard of before. Beyond traditional imagery applications, they now have demonstrated capabilities to access hard-to-reach habitats like tree canopies, and cliffs and to interact with these habitats. These new drone technologies now enable scientists to perform tasks that normally pose a risk to their safety, or tasks that would be impossible using traditional techniques that include rope access, pole pruners or helicopters. These include a robotic sampler suspended under a drone to access the upper canopy that enables the physical collection of foliar samples and is also used to remove invasive insect nests. This aerial sampler is now part of multiple sampling protocols worldwide and has inspired the development of new robotic solutions for leaf sampling in the canopy. A second, more complex robotic sampler has been used to collect endangered plant samples located on inaccessible and sheer cliffs in Hawaii. This tool made it possible to collect and identify plants that had never been described before, as well as plants that were thought to be extinct. This new platform offers a lot of exciting possibilities like the installation of sensors in trees, and the lowering of cameras and sensors into the canopy. A third platform that allows the installation of payloads on treetops has also been developed recently. Inspired by the canopy raft concept, it is used at this moment to install sensors in trees to assess the insect biodiversity in rainforests. Still the platform could be used for several other applications and could perform long-term data acquisition using solar power. This presentation will describe how robotic technologies can support research projects in various ecosystems, and help ecologists perform tasks in habitats that were impossible to reach otherwise. Various collaborative efforts between the fields of robotics and ecology will also be presented to demonstrate developments that would have been impossible without this interdisciplinarity. Finally, this presentation will also highlight the lessons learned during these projects, the future of aerial robotic technologies that are used for environmental science research, and how both roboticists and ecologists can work together to develop new technologies.
