Robot swings into treetops

It abseils down from a height and swings around obstacles: Robot Avocado will one day maneuver through the canopy of the rainforest and collect data for researchers about this difficult-to-access habitat. It's called an avocado and looks a bit like one too: The innovative robot, which researchers are currently developing with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation, has a robust housing that resembles the shape of the green fruit. Hidden inside is a technology that enables the robot to navigate autonomously through treetops. Avocado is one of the latest inventions in environmental robotics. "The idea behind this field is to get robots out of the factory halls and use them outdoors for environmental research," explains Steffen Kirchgeorg, a doctoral student at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf. Especially in tropical rainforests - the areas with the highest biodiversity worldwide - a large part of life takes place in the dense canopy. Exploring these habitats is extremely difficult: research teams climbing trees can only collect data selectively.