受穿山甲启发的机器人将树种种进它挖的洞里

原文链接：Pangolin-inspired robot poops tree seeds into holes it digs (newatlas.com)

The hole-digging, seed-bomb-depositing, Plantolin pangolin-inspired robot

University of Surrey

挖洞、投放种子炸弹、以穿山甲为灵感的Plantolin机器人

萨里大学

Foraging pangolins already dig in the dirt, so why not get them planting trees while they're at it? Well, training them would be pretty hard, which is why a California high school student named Dorothy designed a pangolin-inspired robot to do the digging and planting.

觅食的穿山甲已经在泥土中挖洞了，那么为什么不趁此机会让它们种树呢？嗯，训练它们会相当困难，这就是为什么一位名叫多萝西的加州高中生设计了一款受穿山甲启发的机器人来挖掘和种植。

Dubbed the Plantolin, the bio-inspired bot is the latest winner of the annual Natural Robotics Contest, which is run by the University of Surrey and funded by the British Ecological Society.

这款仿生机器人被命名为“Plantolin”，是萨里大学举办的年度自然机器人大赛的最新赢家，该大赛由英国生态学会资助。

In a nutshell, the competition invites people from all over the world to submit their ideas for nature-inspired robots that are capable of doing something to help the planet. The winning concept gets made into an actual functioning prototype by one or more of the partnering research institutes.

简而言之，这项比赛邀请世界各地的人们提交他们的想法，这些想法要基于自然来制作机器人，这些机器人能够做一些有助于地球的事情。获胜的概念将由一个或多个合作研究机构制作成实际的功能原型。

In the case of the Plantolin, that partner was the University of Surrey itself. Other partners include Queen Mary University of London, the Royal College of Art, EPFL Lausanne (Switzerland), the Technical University of Munich, and Alexander Humboldt University (Germany). The previous winner was a robotic fish that filters microplastic particles out of the water.

在Plantolin的案例中，合作方是萨里大学本身。其他合作方包括伦敦玛丽女王大学、英国皇家艺术学院、洛桑联邦理工学院（瑞士）、慕尼黑工业大学和亚历山大·洪堡大学（德国）。上一届的获奖者是一款能从水中过滤出微塑料颗粒的机器人鱼。

An unsheathed view of the Plantolin, along with some of its seed bombs – Dorothy's design beat out 183 other entries

University of Surrey

未加包装的Plantolin视图，以及它的一些种子炸弹——多萝西的设计击败了其他183个参赛作品

萨里大学

In the same way that a pangolin waddles on its two hind legs, the Plantolin balances Segway-style on two wheels. Each wheel is powered by an electric quadcopter drone motor. The long tail is raised as a counterweight when the robot is making its way across the ground, but tilts down to provide leverage once the bot stops to start digging.

正如穿山甲用它的两条后腿蹒跚行走一样，Plantolin也是以赛格威式平衡的方式在两个轮子上行走。每个轮子都是由一个电动四轴飞行器无人机马达驱动的。当机器人在地面上移动时，长长的尾巴会被抬起作为配重，但一旦机器人停下来开始挖掘，它就会倾斜下来以提供杠杆力。

That digging is done by two motorized front legs. Those legs have claws that stay locked in place when they're scooping soil away, but passively bend back out of the way when being drawn forward to take another scoop.

挖掘工作是由两个电动的前腿完成的。这些腿上有爪子，在挖土时会牢牢地固定住，但当它们被向前拉去挖另一铲土时，爪子会被动地弯曲以避开障碍物。

Once the hole has been dug, the Plantolin drives over it, pooping a yew tree "seed bomb" (basically a nugget of seeds and soil) into the hole as it does so. Those bombs are fed into a dispenser through a hole in the top of the robot, and are carried by an internal conveyor belt to its "butt" for dispersal.

一旦挖好洞，Plantolin就会开过去，同时把一棵紫杉树的“种子炸弹”（基本上是一小块种子和土壤）扔进洞里。这些炸弹通过机器人顶部的孔被送入分配器，并由内部传送带运送到其“屁股”处进行分散。

Just for reference, here's a photo of a real pangolin

Depositphotos

仅供参考，这里有一张真正的穿山甲的照片

Depositphotos

"The restoration of forests through planting more trees is essential for the sustainable development of our planet," says Dorothy. "Pangolins spend a lot of their time digging in the ground, so I thought a planter robot inspired by the pangolin's behaviour would be very natural."

“通过种植更多的树木来恢复森林对我们的星球的可持续发展至关重要，”多萝西说。“穿山甲花了很多时间在土里挖洞，所以我想一个以穿山甲的行为为灵感的种植机器人将会非常自然。”

The Plantolin was built by University of Surrey roboticist Dr. Robert Siddall, who explains more about the bot's workings in the video below.

Plantolin是由萨里大学的机器人专家罗伯特·西德尔博士制造的，他在下面的视频中解释了更多关于机器人的工作原理。