Drone Robots Are Helping Conserve Some Of The Rarest Plants On Earth - National Tropical Botanical Garden

National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) is using cutting edge drone technology to discover and conserve rare plants in Hawaii's extreme terrain.

National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) is located on the island of Kauai in the states of Hawaii.

It is the only botanical garden which is holding a charter from the United States congress under  Title 36 of the United States Code.

NTBG's drone program, developed with University of Sherbrooke, allows for data collection on rare plant populations' location, abundance, and health.

In 2020, NTBG scientists with Outreach Robotics and University of Sherbrooke designed a drone-suspended, remotely controlled arm called "mamba" to collect rare plants.

The MAMBA, suspended beneath a lifting drone, has a rotating sampling head for collecting desired branches and can be operated remotely up to 1 mile (1.6 km) away.

MAMBA allows NTBG to collect seeds and cuttings from small, fragile species in Hawaii from over half a mile away.

NTBG drone specialist Ben Nyberg calls the technology “ground-breaking” and said, “this  combination of robotics and botany is exciting, and is already having an amazing impact  both in species conservation and the knowledge we’re gaining about cliff environments.”

MAMBA has collected cuttings or seeds from more than 12 endangered species including Lysimachia iniki and Isodendrion pyrifolium, which are currently surviving at NTBG and State of Hawaii nurseries."

Among NTBG’s collections are the largest assemblage of endemic plants from Hawai’i  and the Pacific region, as well as the most comprehensive collection of breadfruit cultivars  in the world.

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