The Wallbot - a robotic system for green walls

Descriptive transcript

Green infrastructure, such as green walls and green façades, have many benefits, such as improving air quality, enhancing the thermal performance of buildings, reducing the urban heat island effect, and improving population health and wellbeing.

Furthermore, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions due to the added green infrastructure can help mitigate increases in heat caused by global warming.

Despite these known benefits, the uptake of green walls has been slow. This has been attributed in part to the cost of ongoing maintenance, largely due to the challenges of regular plant health monitoring and occupational health and safety issues for maintenance teams.

To address this, researchers in the fields of built environment, mechanical and mechatronic engineering, architecture, and horticultural science at the University of Technology Sydney have developed the Wallbot, a robot designed to autonomously inspect the health of plants in green walls.

The Wallbot uses four computer-controlled winches operating in unison to control the movements of the rope-suspended robot as it traverses the green wall to perform plant inspections.

Sensors fitted on the Wallbot measure plant health and construct a high-fidelity 3D map of the plants and surrounding infrastructure.

Currently, the first prototype of the Wallbot has been developed, and preliminary tests have been performed at UTS.

Tests were conducted on a green wall constructed from vertical garden plant boxes provided by the green wall company Junglefy.

The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of this proof of concept in monitoring the health of plants.

In the future, it is envisioned that robotic systems like the Wallbot will allow systematic maintenance of green walls to be conducted at regular intervals, whilst reducing the need for human intervention during inspection operations.

This in turn will reduce occupational health and safety risks and human maintenance requirements, leading to more green infrastructure being adopted in our cities.