Georgia Tech’s SlothBot is built to move as little as possible for as long as possible. Its self-charges with solar panels as it moves, very slowly, taking in information. And adorable robot totally bent on world domination. Here’s more from Engadget:
The robot will start by watching over the Atlanta Botanical Garden for several months, hanging from a lone 100-foot cable. In the long run, though, researchers hope to have SlothBot covering wide areas with multiple cables. It could be vital for tracking endangered species and changes to their environments, such as orchid pollination by endangered frogs, with minimal intrusion by humans or having to crawl over obstacles like rocks. The bot could even be useful for precision agriculture, where it might spot bugs or diseases before human farmers do.