autoevolution
 

Linneaus Garden Monitoring Robot Design Could Be Husqvarna’s Next Big Project

Ever wonder how royal gardens are maintained in such pristine and immaculate conditions? Gardeners, how else? But the future seems to be changing all that.
Linneaus Garden Monitoring Robot 7 photos
Photo: David Dawod
Linneaus Garden Monitoring RobotLinneaus Garden Monitoring RobotLinneaus Garden Monitoring RobotLinneaus Garden Monitoring RobotLinneaus Garden Monitoring RobotHusqvarna Automower
Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve all heard of Husqvarna. They’ve been around since the late 1600s producing rifles as their first product. Over hundreds of years, they’ve grown to produce sewing machines, bicycles, motorcycles, chainsaws, kitchen equipment, and basically any other power tool and accessory you can think of.

The project you see here could very well be the next piece of Husqvarna equipment that’s introduced to society. David Dawod is a product designer from Stockholm, Sweden, with a syndrome for building some really out there designs with real-world applicability.

What you see here is the Husqvarna Linneaus garden monitoring robot, and even though Mr. Dawod pitched this idea directly to Husqvarna HQ, I couldn’t find out if Husqvarna took the bait or not. If they did, you’ll be sure to see the Linneaus floating round your local parks in a few years.

Where to even start with this amazing drone. Its function is rather simple. It is only meant to monitor gardens and agricultural sites and does not include any actual gardening ability. The Linneaus is the sort of drone that includes two modes of operation, terrestrial and airborne.

Linneaus Garden Monitoring Robot
Photo: David Dawod
Terrestrial mode includes mobility functions like that of a tank and uses gecko tape tracks. Never heard of gecko tape? It’s nothing more than an adhesive that function like the hairs on gecko’s feet, bonding to a surface at a molecular level. It’s the reason geckos can climb vertical glass. Wanna find out how that happens? Should have paid attention to your chemistry teacher. These days, you can just use Google.

In this mode, the drone can perform several operations. Rolling along, it can identify if an area needs irrigation, if any plants or trees are suffering from pest damage, and even the health of soil. All the drone does next is send an alert to the systems meant to take care of the situation at hand. In case soil health isn’t at the desired level for the plants in the area, Linneaus will even inform you of what nutrients are required.

But what about airborne functions? If you look closely at the tracks of the drone, you’ll also notice two hubs with propellors in the center. What, you thought those were spokes? No no no, those are exactly the type of blades and propulsion system being used on existing drones today.

Linneaus Garden Monitoring Robot
Photo: David Dawod
To activate flight, the tracks pivot horizontally and away it goes. In flight mode, the drone can assess which trees may need pruning, if there are any sort of ground disturbances such as fires or floods, and even the health of canopies. If anything needs human attention, an alert is sent out again and the rest is history.

Clearly, the future is an electric one, so you can bet your bottom dollar that this device is electric. The body of the drone is to include a battery pack, an interactive ring for God knows what, and a set of cameras and sensors built into the front under the Husqvarna logo.

Now, this project was unveiled back in 2017 according to the designer’s Behance page. Since then, there’s been plenty of time for these little robots to be seen everywhere. So, what happened? Beats me. I tried reaching out to the designer via telephone, but I think I dialed the wrong number as I don’t speak Cantonese.

Nonetheless, it’s a pretty neat idea to keep track of the balance between hot concrete and cool greens, in the process leading to happier humans. You'll probably be seeing something like this soon.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Cristian Curmei
Cristian Curmei profile photo

A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides).
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories