Ephemeral data collectors: Bio-gliders are dispersed over a forest by a drone. When they reach the ground, they transmit environmental data until they are eventually decomposed by soil organisms. Illustration: Empa
Ephemeral data collectors: Bio-gliders are dispersed over a forest by a drone. When they reach the ground, they transmit environmental data until they are eventually decomposed by soil organisms. Illustration: Empa Their task is to monitor the condition of ecosystems, for instance in the forest floor - and crumble to dust when their work is done: bio-gliders modeled on the Java cucumber, which sails its seeds dozens of meters through the air. researchers have developed these sustainable flying sensors from potato starch and wood waste. Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin and Ernest Shackleton set out on years of arduous voyages of exploration to gather spectacular, previously unknown impressions. Today, the pioneers of modern environmental observation are to be succeeded by faster, contemporary data collectors that record important eco-parameters in real time and without any risk. researchers at the Sustainability Robotics laboratory in Dübendorf are therefore developing low-cost, sustainable sensors and flying devices that can collect environmental data in an energy-efficient, close-meshed and autonomous manner even in inaccessible areas, so-called bio-gliders.
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