What is it?
Real Carbon Capture Machine is the name of a new prototype seedling planter under development in Brazil by Forest bot. The RCCM aims to plant seedlings of any forest species, native or exotic simultaneously, with spacing that can be adjusted by the operator, with the standard spacing of 2 meters per seedling.
Image: forest.bot Facebook photos
Background
In 2016, Marcelo Guimaraes, an innovative entrepreneur who comes from the information and technology industry, began to design a new planting system for the purpose of reforestation. The 1st version was completed in 2018 and it had a planting wheel with a fixed spacement of 3 meters between each planted seedling. However, due to its spacement limitation and other challenges, an upgraded 2nd version was completed in 2019. In the 2nd version, the operator could adjust the planting wheel from 2, 3 or 4 meters. Furthermore, it was equipped with GPS features to locate the planted seedlings as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for assessing the planting quality. There 3rd version is coupled to a tractor type pulling system. The 4th generation which is currently being tested will be a self-propelled planter which can plant native (mahogany, i.e.) and exotic species such as eucalypts and pines.
How the machines work
The machine comprises of two pieces of equipment. The first machine integrates the planting system and the computer system, and the second machine is responsible for the carting of seedlings. Each cart has a capacity of 16 000 seedlings which can be transported directly from the nursery to the compartment. When all seedlings are planted the cart is decoupled from the planting machine and new cart is attached for it to continue planting.
The units will come with a roots front cutting disc, a subsoiler shank with fertilizer pipe behind the ripper. A planting pipe, according to Guimaraes, will be capable to plant up to 3,600 seedlings per hour without interruption in line. The carousel will be able to carry up to 100 seedlings, and the distance between each plant will be adjustable electronically without stopping. The artificial intelligence system will be capable of evaluating if the seedling is planted in an upright position, tilted or bended, substrate grounded or not, and all the info will be correlated to its planting position coordinates (GPS).
For more information visit: iplantforest
