Two young Portuguese people, Marta Bernardino and Sebastião Mendonça, decided to seek a technological solution to make it easier to restore forests affected by fires and terrain that is difficult to access. 🌱🤖 In 2023, they created Trovador, a quadruped robot capable of moving through sloped and rugged areas where conventional machinery has difficulty operating.
The project began with a first prototype built from recycled materials at a cost of just 15 euros. Since then, the two have developed a more advanced version, designed to move across slopes of up to 45° and plant up to 200 trees per hour, with an accuracy of approximately ±2 centimeters in planting depth.
The initiative aims to make reforesting areas affected by fires more accessible and efficient, especially in places where planting trees by hand or using heavy machinery is difficult.