Gennaro Notomista, a PhD student in the Robotics and InTelligent Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech, has created a unique alternative to drone monitoring, now commonly used in land management. Drones are not very energy efficient and can't remain in the air for very long. Notomista decided to look to nature for inspiration. Low-powered nature. The sloth.
His SlothBot moves along a series of wires. It is solar powered. It never needs a charge as it goes about its slow-mo business of monitoring an environment.
The SlothBot is currently creeping along in the Atlanta Botanical Garden where it monitors such environmental conditions as temperature, weather, and carbon dioxide levels.
Other applications might include agricultural robotics and monitoring in hazardous places such as for power line inspection.
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