These Drones Could Help Restore Earth’s Forests
By: Pranav Bansal
Tags: Trees, Deforestation, Drones, Technology, Environment

Tree-Planting Drones

How drones plant tree seeds (Picture Credit: TechSpot)

Overview

Tree-planting drones are an adaptation of commercial drones. It takes only two human operators to control a batch of ten drones through a mobile app, computer software, or a traditional video game controller. What makes these drones really effective, however, is the ability to fire 120 seed pods per minute at extremely fast speeds into the forest soil below. On the contrary, if an individual were to plant a seed, it would take them a minimum of five minutes just to plant one seed. Bremley Lyngdoh, CEO of Worldview Impact, says,

“Obviously, planting a billion trees will take a long time without the help of drones. We can literally see every single tree and the leaves on the tree if we need to. It opens up this new market for people to see the connection with trees and to say, ‘Wow, this is my tree. I planted that.’”

Additionally, the seed capsules that the drones hold contain a proprietary plant mix containing plant food, beneficial bacteria and fungi, and a small amount of soil. One of the best aspects of these drones is that they keep to the theme of caring for the environment. Unlike most technology-related equipment and machines, tree-planting drones have 0 emissions, promoting a greener world.

Although this idea is rather effective, these drones are still unable to match the rate of deforestation. Every minute, the Earth loses forest area the size of 27 football fields.

Artificial Intelligence

If we want to effectively fight deforestation, countries must make some sort of truce for the sake of the environment. Currently, the governments of specific areas prohibit the usage of drones, making it difficult for drones to travel to forests around the world that need reseeding. Once this is achieved, seed planting can begin.

Adding AI to drone hardware will enable them to sufficiently map out forest areas (Picture Credit: Dextra International)

Integrating artificial intelligence into drones is a potential breakthrough. This is because AI will allow these drones to become fully autonomous, making it possible for them to plant more seeds per day. Also, adding a 3D mapping system will enhance their skills in locating which forest areas are more impacted by deforestation, allowing them to create an optimal planting route every day. Currently, human operators have to travel from forest to forest, marking off each spot that needs to be soiled and replanted with tree seeds. This cuts into the total time one tree-planting project takes.

Drone mapping system using AI (Picture Credit: Tech Explorist)

Limitations

Although tree-planting drones present many excellent opportunities to properly preserve the Earth, there are many constraints regarding drones all over the world. As I mentioned previously, drones are only allowed to be flown in specific places, and even before that, one must receive a drone-flying permit during a specific time frame, which can take up to months depending on the demand. Furthermore, there are times when the government may reject your application to obtain a permit. This also leads to many safety concerns. For instance, many aviation companies want to avoid the possibility of a collision between an aircraft and a drone for the assured safety of the passengers and pilots inside the plane.

Many areas around the globe have a “No Drone Zone” (Picture Credit: CineD)

Overall, the usage of this cutting-edge technology is widely being considered by many countries because the positive outcomes overwhelm the setbacks to most.