This tiny device could reforest the entire planet

That is so cool! So it’s less of “programming” a robot and more just utilizing its natural properties and math/geometry to make it do what you want. So neat.

It's a "GROUNDBREAKING" 😂 😂 😂 Intentional or not, loved it! 😝

I didn’t know other plants had these self sowing mechanisms. I was only familiar with porcupine grass having them.

Interesting solution. There is at least one simpler solution already tested with very high degree of success: Using gel like droplets/beads carrying seeds and dropping them from aircrafts. The gel like substance acts as protection and initial nutrients for the seeds and the velocity of the dropping effects help with the ground penetration. This solution has been used several times in Brazil to recover the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) that covers the Brazilian coast, which was in extreme risk a few decades ago. The same solution has been used successfully in other places.

AMAZING! Here in Brazil, a similar strategy is used by rainforest palm trees of the genus Euterpe. One of them (E. oleracea) produces the well-known "açaí". The round seed has meridian axial fibers, which open up with moisture and it looks like a spider... with more legs. This makes it easier for the seed to settle in the soil, giving it time to root without being carried away by runoff. GRATEFUL!

You could definitely bomb these over whole areas, but I think an issue arises from them all being planted at once. With trees this could be problematic since once they mature their similarly sized and positioned canopies could lead to darkness below which means the floor plants aren't getting enough sun to grow. Might need to take care in spreading them out far enough, and combing over areas multiple times planting them in intervals of months or years.

If seeding was the issue this would be useful. You need to take care of the young seedling for it to grow into a proper tree.

That's insanely interesting! Can't wait for more info abt this

Seeds are fine on their own though... It's not that not enough seeds get buried, but there aren't enough sown

As interesting as it is, I don't really see how manufacturing them, mounting/prepping the seed onto them and then planting them, is more advantageous than simply planting the seeds themselves with some fertilizer.

Am I missing something? These robots must cost a lot of money to make and the research and development of them too. Someone has to travel to the area of seeding to drop these robots, would it not be easier and cheaper to take seeds and plant them the old fashioned way?

This takes me back to the crazy fun of discovery in my childhood, and playing with these plants from about age 4.😊 Roboticists rock!✌

Now that is cool. Saturating the wooden bot part with some fertilizer wouldn't hurt either. The best part is you can mass produce them in huge amounts, mix up several species for a target zone, and just saturation bomb the area. Natural competition will take over and the strongest plants will take over. You could also deploy non-tree species - ground cover, hedges, scrub, whatever, to either form a pre-forest ecosystem, forest-adjacent ecosystem, or non-forest ecosystem.

Im just constantly smiling while watching this... i hope it can be adopted in a lot more places 😍

frickin fantastic. i hope more of this sort of thing is done all over the world in the future!

Killing woods to plant more woods. Yeah. Genius.

I love your videos. You explain everything so well. Keep the good work up

i think it might be helpful to take into account the native mycelium to wherever it’s being planted!

This is awesome! Brilliant work by the researchers and developers!

This is incredible. Love these people!