Sand barrier, tree-planting robots from Eason to assist fight against desertification
- Eason, which literally translates as easy forest, said such a robot, about the size of a one-seat tractor, is inexpensive to build but offers high operational efficiency.
With the annual Arbor Day approaching in China, how robots and other automated equipment can plant trees and fight desertification has become a trendy topic.
Eason Robot (易森智能), a mobile robot and autonomous vehicle producer, recently made headlines with its application of robotic technologies in stemming desertification.
One of the products developed by Eason is a so-called “sand barrier” robot, which is capable of holding the loose top layer of sand in place with materials like straw, branch and clay.
This is to harden the surface of the desert, turning it into sand barriers to prevent wind from blowing the grit everywhere and creating new pockets of arid, barren land.
Eason, which literally translates as easy forest, said such a robot, about the size of a one-seat tractor, is inexpensive to build but offers high operational efficiency.
It can be programmed to climb 45-degree slopes and cover 50 to 60 mu, or 33,333 to 40,000 sqm, of land a day, a tremendous boost to productivity relative to human labor.
Traditionally, ecological restoration in desert areas is carried out by humans and faces multiple limitations.
These include high labor costs, heavy workload and a low survival rate of trees planted.
After repeated tests and iterations of its equipment in the Kubuqi Desert in northern China’s Inner Mongolia, Eason decided to roll out its technologies on a wider scale.
The Beijing-based firm claims to be the first “full-process” manufacturer of smart tree-planting robots, leveraging AI, machine vision, BeiDou navigation and autonomous driving to empower the fight against desertification.
The company was incubated by Elion Group (亿利资源), a private corporation with 35 years of experience in desert control and clean energy production.
Eason kicked off the manufacturing in late February of its sand barrier and tree-planting robots at a factory in Chengde of northern China’s Hebei Province.
Going forward, around 1,000 pieces of these equipment will roll off the plant’s production line annually, the company said, adding the main type of trees they plant is salix mongolica, a sand-fixing plant.
