Robotics helps achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Nature preservation using robots is changing the manner in which we preserve the world at a speed nothing short of fantastic. From the bottom of the oceans to the tops of the mountains, robots are serving to combat environmental degradation. In line with sustainable development, these advanced technologies play a crucial role in ensuring long-term ecological balance. In this article, we look at some of the uses of robots in conservation and how they can be used in the conservation of our world.

Why Robotics is Significant to Sustainable Development

The world is beset with a list of environmental problems, including global warming, pollution, deforestation, and species extinction. All these have to be addressed by new technologies, and one relatively new but highly effective technology is robotics. Robots can travel where it is not possible to travel, are of attacking nature sustainable development, can collect enormous data, and can perform tasks with very high precision and speed beyond human capabilities. Robots are thus extremely useful in research, observation, and conservation work.

Robot Wildlife Monitoring

• In a bid to conserve animals, their numbers and habits should be understood.
• Monitoring wildlife in the conventional manner is expensive, time-consuming, and intrusive.
• Robots offer a less intrusive alternative that is more conducive.

1. Drones

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, are revolutionising wildlife watching. Sensor- and camera-equipped drones rapidly scan large habitats, track animal migrations, track where animals are born, and even track the health of individual animals. Drones, for example, track endangered orangutans in the rainforest of Borneo.

2. Underwater Robots

ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) allow scientists to explore our oceans and find out about sea life without disturbing the ocean floor. Underwater robots can tell us about how pure water is, how many fish there are, and even observe how deep-sea animals live.

3. Robot Cameras

Robot cameras are compact cameras used to plant them in the wild in order to take photographs and shoot videos of animals. They are triggered by movement or sound and allow scientists to study animal migration without physically interacting with them.

Robotics for Habitat Restoration

Habitat restoration is the most important function as far as protecting the environment is concerned. Robots can prove to be an enormous help here.

1. Seed Planting Robots: Seed-planting robots can economically and accurately re-seed lands that have been cleared or levelled. The robots will be able to traverse hilly terrain and plant multiple seeds simultaneously.
2. Destroying Alien Insects: Robots can be equipped to locate and destroy alien insects that ravage the natural environment. Sensor robots, for example, can recognise and tag alien plants, which can then be removed without destroying any other organisms.

Robotics and Cleaning Pollution

Pollution is the largest environmental problem burdening water, land, and air. Pollution is also being cleaned by robots and is visible in the future.

Robot Ocean Cleanups

Robots are even being designed that will clean the ocean of plastic and other waste. The robots can be programmed to do it automatically by swimming in the ocean and picking up the pollutants. The Ocean Cleanup System is a good example of how this technology has been implemented.

Air Quality Monitoring Robots

Small robots with air quality monitors can be sent to the cities to detect the level of pollution. It can be used to find out where the pollution is maximum and come up with mechanisms to purify the air.

Toxic Waste Cleanup Robots

Robots leak toxic waste in a safer and more efficient way. Robots are controlled remotely, thus minimising the level of exposure to the operator.

Robotics in Precision Farming

Precision farming is a form of sustainable agriculture with higher farm yields without drastically destroying the environment. Robots have a very significant role to play in precision farming.

• Robot Harvesters: Robot harvesting is done with individuals and maximum efficiency.
• Weed-Control Robots: The robots are already programmed to recognise weeds and kill them without damaging the crops using toxic herbicides.
• Precision Irrigation Robots: They can irrigate the crops nicely and accurately and save water along with reducing runoff.

The Future of Environmental Defence with Robotics

Environmental defence through robots is a new trend now. Robots incorporating AI and machine learning capabilities are being produced.

AI-Based Robots

With the help of robots, data that can be gathered can be processed for carrying out research on the same using AI, and thus more efficient decisions can be made to ensure conservation. For example, AI can be employed for animal motion pattern recognition or even predicting invasion by an extraterrestrial species.

Swarm Robotics

Robots are accumulated and used in the form of swarms to conduct an action. For example, robots are used as a swarm to defoliate a vast area of woodland or devastate an area of pollution.

Bio-Inspired Robots

Nature-inspired robots are designed. For example, bird-mimicking flight robots or fish-mimicking swim robots can be employed to surveyean or avian life.

Challenges and Opportunities

While robotics is very promising in terms of nature’s sustainable development conservation, there are some problems that need to be solved.

• Cost: Robots are expensive to design and produce. Perhaps it will be beyond the budget of some of the nature sustainable development conservation agencies.
• Technical Challenges: Robots must be designed with a robust structure and durability using tough materials so that they can function well in harsh environments.

Ethical Problems

There are ethical problems with the application of robots in conservation in terms of how they affect wildlife and nature sustainable development.

All these aside, the future for robotics in preserving the harmony of the environment is bright. With the technology still moving at the speed of light, the robots will play an even more critical role in rescuing our world.

Robot conservation is a wonderful assistance in the fight to reclaim the environmental problems that we currently grapple with. From pollution cleanups to tracking wildlife, robots are certainly taking steps in the fight to preserve our world. As technology increases by the day, we can only imagine newer and improved applications of robots to help with conservation in the years to come. With these developments, we can make the world a cleaner place for all.