A TEAM from the University of Oxford has given a robot mapping demonstration to UK forestry researchers in the Forest of Dean
The demonstration involving a robot named Anymal was carried out on Monday, February 17, on a mature oak plantation.
Attendees included masters students from University of Swansea, researchers from Southampton, and scientists from Forestry Research UK.
The goal of the trip was to promote work in Digiforest, an EU-funded research project which looks to develop robotics and analytics technology for sustainable forestry.
A Digiforest spokesperson said: “We thank Dr Juan Suarez of Forestry Research UK for arranging and promoting the event which was helpful for promoting DigiForest to the UK forestry data community and making new connections.
“Thanks also to Tom Wilkinson and Tom Fuller from Oxford’s Public Affairs Directorate for the creation of upcoming media to help promote the project.”
The project uses mobile mapping systems like handheld devices, walking robots and drones, to map individual trees and their main parameters. This allows forest management to make decisions more scientifically.
The Oxford team demonstrated its Anymal robot, which autonomously explored a plot of the plantation.
Anymal is no stranger to the Forest, having last year walked underground from Wallsend Colliery to Yorkley.
Its backpack system built 3D maps of each individual tree, and extracted real-time traits. It then summarised the progress of other partners.
The team is known as The Dynamic Robot Systems group at the University of Oxford, which researches control, motion planning, mapping, and navigation for dynamically moving robots.
Their work has application to legged robots, autonomous vehicles and handheld mapping systems.
The group is composed of Principal Investigator Maurice Fallon, PhD Students Frank Fu and Ethan Yifu Tao, and Post-doctoral Researchers Nived Chebrolu and Matias Mattamala.
You can find out more about the DigiForest project and the teams involved by visiting the DigiForest website.