Army of student-made robots creates micro forest in city

We have all witnessed several tree plantation drives in the city, but the one that was held on January 25 at the Anna University campus was truly one of its kind. Instead of humans, it was robots controlled by young students that worked with the soil to plant saplings. 

The robots were coded to pick up tiny saplings and lowered them into the soil and even watered them. A total of 300 students, who worked on bringing these robots to life, operated them for this afforestation initiative. This attempt at setting a world record for having the most participants with robots to create a micro forest was to demonstrate that technology could also be beneficial to nature in fighting against global warming, the organisers say.

The students, aged between seven and 17, came from 20 different centres of SP Robotics Maker Lab, a space for children to learn robotics. The idea of having robots plant trees occurred when one of the students submitted a project of a robot planting trees, and his friend’s robot watering them, says the Maker Lab Head Aarthi Muralitharan. “This idea was amazing and we wanted to make it big and impactful through a world record. This is one world record that should be broken over and over again, so that more trees are planted and we are all winners in the end,” she says.

During the event, one team of students were involved in assembling the robots, which were controlled using smartphones via Bluetooth. While another team coded the robots to water the plants themselves. These plants would be nurtured for a period of three years by SP Robotics, along with Communitree, which has been planting and maintaining lakhs of trees in the city. Rohit Ranjith Kumar, a Class 9 student who took part in the record event, says combining robotics and tree plantation is a great way to raise awareness on climate change and to involve young people to take action and find solutions.

The Chief Executive of the robotics learning centre Sneha Priya says in the age of automation, it is critical for children to learn about emerging technologies from an early age. “This world record is one such attempt to show how the students can implement their learnings, especially in a beneficial way to the environment,” she remarks.