British engineering and smart tech firm CAL International is set to embark on an initiative to plant 100million trees by 2024.
The firm based at Knowsley in Merseyside has joined with Australian firm AirSeed Technologies to scatter pods containing tree seeds using drones.
The aim is to tackle deforestation using a far faster method than manual planting.
Using a two-person team, an AirSeed drone aims to plant 40,000 pods per day.
Cal International founder Cliff Kirby said: “This is a global collaboration and the very definition of the art of the possible.”
Cal International has created the seed pod delivery system that sits as “the engine” of AirSeed’s unique tree-planting aerial drone technology.
The AirSeed drone uses artificial and data intelligence to locates target areas for tree planting before firing carbon pods onto the ground at a rate of two-per-second.
The carbon pods are then pinpointed on the mapping system in line with the flight trajectory, which also considers wind variables and conditions on the day of planting. This allows the drone to return on a reconnaissance flight via the same route to then identify and map tree growth.
The pods, filled with seed and compost, break down when it rains allowing the seed to germinate.
Mr Kirby, said: “When AirSeed explained what they hoped to achieve, it was a challenge that we were delighted to take on. The huge significance and impact that this innovation can bring in the fight against climate change is truly global.
The collaboration between CAL and AirSeed will ultimately mean that each drone can deliver two pods per second over a designated area, planting up to 40,000 pods in a day. Through rapid automation and scale of the process, it can cover and penetrate a much wider geographical area.”
AirSeed was co-founded by British born entrepreneur and engineer, Andrew Walker, and South African data-mapping analyst and Chief Pilot Andries Louw. Together. they created the AirSeed team, which is comprised of experienced professionals in engineering, ecology, marine and terrestrial microbiology and data science.
AirSeed co-founder Andrew Walker said: “Working with CAL, they have managed to take an existing delivery system design and turn it into a unique pod delivery mechanism. The design and engineering that has gone into the aerial platform from CAL also means we can produce a great number of AirSeed aerial platforms and deploy these into the field quicker to speed up the process of reforestation which will help us in a race against time to mitigate climate change.”
Traditional manual planting solutions are slow, labour-intensive, expensive and ineffective in trying to mitigate today’s rate of deforestation. AirSeed’s aerial platform is 80% cheaper than current planting methods and 25 times faster than manual planting methods.
