Swiss Researchers Utilize Drones for Rainforest Health Monitoring
A group of researchers from the ETH Zurich are in the running for the global XPRIZE Rainforest competition with their project employing custom-built drones to monitor the health of the rainforest.
The competition has a prize fund of $10 million (€9.1million) and is designed to encourage the development of technologies to monitor, measure and assess the complex ecosystem.
The Swiss team’s drones operate by collecting environmental DNA samples without needing to enter the rainforest itself. The collected data can then be used to identify hundreds of plant and animal species.
Environmental DNA refers to genetic traces of plants and animals in a particular area that can help prove if a given animal or plant lives in the area.
Among the technology developed by the team are drones capable of collecting air samples as well as another device that can be winched from a drone to collect swabs of plants in the forest canopy.
“We brought here mainly two types of drones,” Stefano Mintchev, Assistant Professor of Environmental Robotics at ETH Zurich, explained.
“We added a custom payload and with this custom payload we are able to collect air to sample airborne eDNA,” he said.
The second payload is a probe that we can lower inside the canopy in order to collect surface eDNA by swabbing the vegetation that we encounter when the probe moves up and down into the canopy,” Mintchev added.
The XPRIZE semi-final in Singapore saw 13 teams competing to demonstrate the effectiveness of their technologies with 24 hours to collect data and another 48 hours to analyse their findings and compile a report.
The researchers were tasked with identifying as many species of plants and animals as possible across a designated plot without actually setting foot in the jungle.
The Swiss team will join five other groups in the XPRIZE Rainforest final next year.
A team of researchers from ETH Zurich is participating in the global XPRIZE Rainforest competition with their innovative project that utilizes custom-built drones to monitor the health of rainforests. The competition offers a prize fund of $10 million (€9.1 million) and aims to encourage the development of technologies for monitoring and assessing complex ecosystems.
The Swiss team’s drones are designed to collect environmental DNA (eDNA) samples without the need to physically enter the rainforest. These samples can then be used to identify numerous plant and animal species. Environmental DNA refers to genetic traces of organisms in a specific area, which can help determine if certain species inhabit that area.
The team has developed drones capable of collecting air samples and another device that can be attached to a drone and used to collect swabs of plants in the forest canopy. Stefano Mintchev, Assistant Professor of Environmental Robotics at ETH Zurich, explained that they have brought two types of drones for this purpose. One drone collects air samples using a custom payload, while the other drone carries a probe that can be lowered into the canopy to collect surface eDNA by swabbing vegetation.
In the XPRIZE semi-final held in Singapore, 13 teams competed to demonstrate the effectiveness of their technologies. They had 24 hours to collect data and an additional 48 hours to analyze their findings and compile a report. The researchers were tasked with identifying as many plant and animal species as possible within a designated plot without physically entering the jungle.
The Swiss team will now advance to the XPRIZE Rainforest final next year, where they will join five other groups. This competition showcases the potential of their drone technology in monitoring and preserving rainforests.
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While the use of drones for rainforest monitoring is innovative, some may argue that it could lead to further intrusion and exploitation of these delicate ecosystems.
While utilizing drones for rainforest monitoring is innovative, we must also consider the potential negative impacts of increased technology on indigenous communities and wildlife.