00:00Este pequeño robot puede ser nuestra única oportunidad para salvar el ecosistema.
00:06Parece increíble, pero esta nueva innovación puede reforestar el planeta,
00:12salvar miles de animales y replenar nuestros recursos naturales.
00:18Así, ¿qué es este robot que va a cambiar la superficie de la Tierra?
00:23Aquí es cómo funciona.
00:25All you need is to place it on the ground and it will slowly start burying itself.
00:31If you attach a seed to it, the robot plants it deep underground.
00:36It behaves just like a hygromorph,
00:40a natural structure that changes shape in response to the environment and its conditions like humidity.
00:47Morphing Matter Lab, a team of researchers behind the innovation,
00:52came up with this simple yet genius design that has three anchor points
00:57that prevent the structure from flipping over or falling down.
01:00It always faces downward at a specific angle to penetrate the ground and plant itself.
01:07The secret is in the number of coils.
01:10More coils will soften the structure,
01:13but having too few of these coils won't have enough thrust force for the actuation effect.
01:18By drilling the seed deep enough,
01:21the structure keeps it safe underground from natural threats like fires, rains, or animals.
01:27When the robot comes in contact with moisture, the wood expands,
01:32but the inner layer cells do it faster than the outer layer, causing it to coil.
01:37When it dries, it changes speed again with the inner layer cells pushing the seed deeper into the soil.
01:43The choice of materials for these robots became oak wood,
01:48one of the strongest and most accessible.
01:52Back in the lab, they run a series of chemical processes
01:55to make tiny pieces of wood pliable and keep its strength.
01:59Then they introduce a mechanical molding to produce this intricate structure.
02:04It's a unique design of a robot because it doesn't require any more materials to be made from.
02:10No synthetics or plastics are involved, which are already damaging our planet.
02:16Wood is biodegradable, so it won't become a waste in forests.
02:21One of the most important tests they conducted was airdropping multiple seeds from drones.
02:27As a result, such cases maintained a success rate of 90%.
02:33What's more convenient is that robots can be implanted with symbiotic species,
02:39like fungi and nematodes, that help to increase the survival rate of a plant in a natural environment.
02:45Maybe a robot is not the right name for it.
02:48Instead, let's call it a copy of the erodium plant.
02:53This plant produces seeds with a hydromorphic tail-like structure
02:58that helps the seed to propel itself into the ground.
03:01It then coils and uncoils, trying to drill the seed further into the soil.
03:07This plant was an inspiration to the team,
03:10but it had its downside that needed to be fixed – its low success rate.
03:15Erodium seeds have a hard time drilling themselves into the ground,
03:18and harder terrains bring their chances to zero.
03:22So that's why these engineers took a stance and improved the design to make it work all the time.
03:30What's more fascinating is that the robot can hold various seeds and plant every wood type,
03:36enabling the possibility of reforesting all terrains on the planet.
03:40With innovations like this, it's only a matter of years before the world will start recovering to its original look.
03:48Elon Musk's dad раза
