This is an old revision of the document!
Machine Ecology
Project proposal.
Partners: FoAM Ams, Zone2Source, Ivan Henriques, Daan van Geijlswijk.
Keywords: ecological robotics, restoration ecology, artificial organisms, artscience, foodwebs, trophic cascades, biodiversity, groworld.
Outline:
Anthropocentric landscapes are characterized by reduced biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Traditionally the engeneering focus on landscape maintainance has been primarily on efficiently extracting these landscapes, in industrial agriculture, forestry, mining and tourism. Machine Ecology is a project proposal sketching out the potential for artificial organisms as a functional part of ecosystems, contributing to biodiversity. The new MidWest Experimental Station a research station set up by FoAM in Amsterdam, could function as a test area for ecological robotics and study interactions between biomes and mechanical organisms.
Topics: Could artificial beings contribute to biodiversity, microclimates, pollination, zoochorie, reforestation or even fill vacant ecological niches? Could artificial beings interact symbiotically in food-webs? Use foraging strategies as a power source? Predate on invasive species, or enable trophic cascades to create more biodiverse landscapes?
Researchers:
Theory:
- PDF Robots in Ecology: Welcome to the machine
- FoAM's Augmented Ecology
Universities:
- GaTech Mobile Robot Lab
- Oregon University Dynamic Robotics Lab
- UCL Centre for Mathematics, Physics and Engineering in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology
- Harvard Robobees
- CalTech Ocean Gliders
- WSU LiDAR fearscapes
Open Source:
Companies:
- Technology for Nature University College London, Microsoft Research and the Zoological Society of London
History:
theunkarelse