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Deployable treetop base station for environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring is becoming one of the fundamental challenges of our time. We are seeking to develop a platform that can be deployed on the top of a tree canopy and remain there for extended periods of time for environmental monitoring.
Forest canopies are hotspots of biological diversity and contribute to the stability of world climate. With increasing human induced change comes a growing demand for large spatial and temporal data acquisition from within forest canopies to better conserve, restore and sustainably exploit these ecosystems.
With this in mind, we would like to develop a platform that can be deployed from a drone onto a tree canopy to remain atop the tree for extended periods of time. The platform will need to be deployed from a drone, landed, and secured on the tree canopy. It will serve as a sensor hub and base station to deploy smaller robots into the canopy. In the future, the platform may integrate solar cells for continuous operation.
Within this project, we aim to develop the deployable structure and investigate large scale grasping or distributed grasping, for example by using novel techniques such as origami or kirigami manufacturing [1].
[1] Y. Yang, K. Vella and D.P. Holmes, Grasping with kirigami shells, Sci. Robot., 6 (2021) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abd6426
Forest canopies are hotspots of biological diversity and contribute to the stability of world climate. With increasing human induced change comes a growing demand for large spatial and temporal data acquisition from within forest canopies to better conserve, restore and sustainably exploit these ecosystems.
With this in mind, we would like to develop a platform that can be deployed from a drone onto a tree canopy to remain atop the tree for extended periods of time. The platform will need to be deployed from a drone, landed, and secured on the tree canopy. It will serve as a sensor hub and base station to deploy smaller robots into the canopy. In the future, the platform may integrate solar cells for continuous operation.
Within this project, we aim to develop the deployable structure and investigate large scale grasping or distributed grasping, for example by using novel techniques such as origami or kirigami manufacturing [1].
[1] Y. Yang, K. Vella and D.P. Holmes, Grasping with kirigami shells, Sci. Robot., 6 (2021) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abd6426
The goal of the project is to i) understand the natural challenges, ii) investigate novel design and manufacturing techniques for larger scale structures, as well as iii) develop and prototype the deployable structure.
**Work packages**
- Investigate and understand the challenge of landing and attaching a structure to the treetop
- Familiarization with large scale grasping, distributed grasping as well as novel manufacturing methods to achieve larger scale deployable structures
- Develop concepts and iterate through the most promising concept to create a prototype
- Testing in- and outdoor
**Requirements**
- High motivation and interested in robotics for environmental research
- Background in mechanical engineering, design, materials and/or soft materials and/or manufacturing
- Methodological and goal-oriented working behaviour
- Creative and exploratory mindset
- Good communication skills
The goal of the project is to i) understand the natural challenges, ii) investigate novel design and manufacturing techniques for larger scale structures, as well as iii) develop and prototype the deployable structure.
**Work packages**
- Investigate and understand the challenge of landing and attaching a structure to the treetop
- Familiarization with large scale grasping, distributed grasping as well as novel manufacturing methods to achieve larger scale deployable structures
- Develop concepts and iterate through the most promising concept to create a prototype
- Testing in- and outdoor
**Requirements**
- High motivation and interested in robotics for environmental research