SlothBot

The SlothBot robotic sloth hangs upside down from a wire amid green leafy trees outside. It has a solar panel and other electronics.
SlothBot doesn't move very much, just like a real sloth! Photo: Rob Felt/Georgia Tech

SlothBot is a solar-powered, cable-driven, environmental monitoring robot. It is designed to be present in natural ecosystems, primarily under tree canopies, over long periods of time without any human intervention while measuring microclimate data. It's cute and slow—very slow.

Creators

Georgia Tech's Robotarium and University of California, Irvine

Year
2021
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
This robot lives among the trees. Video: Georgia Tech

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Did you know?

The SlothBot concept was envisioned during a vacation trip to Costa Rica where there are actual sloths everywhere.

Two people wearing masks lean on a fence outdoors. In the distance behind them, the SlothBot robot hangs from a wire.
Just hanging out with a sloth, who is also just hanging out. Rob Felt/Georgia Tech

History

SlothBot was developed at Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, by Magnus Egerstedt, a professor of robotics who led the project; Gennaro Notomista, a PhD student; and a team of engineers and ecologists. They were inspired by sloths they saw in Costa Rica. The sloths gave them the idea of exploring "slowness as a design paradigm" through an arboreal robot. Egerstedt is now a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and dean of engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Notomista is now a professor of robotics at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Four people in masks squat outside behind a large sloth robot.
Human-to-sloth size comparison. Rob Felt/Georgia Tech
The people in a lab work on assembling the robot.
The robot's shell has a protective coating. Rob Felt/Georgia Tech

Specs

Overview

Solar-powered, energy-efficient, cable-driven, cute.

Status

Ongoing

Year

2021

Website
Width
25 cm
Height
35 cm
Length
80 cm
Weight
20 kg
Speed
Slooooow
Sensors

Distance sensor: JSN-SR04T waterproof ultrasonic distance measuring module. Environmental sensors: TSL2591 high dynamic range digital light sensor; BME680 temperature, humidity, pressure and gas sensor; SGP30 air quality VOC and eCO2 sensor. Other: INA260 voltage, current, power sensor.

Actuators

Metal gearmotor, 12 V, transmission ratio 378:1, with 48 CPR encoder, 14 RPM, 2.25 Nm torque

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
1 DoF
Materials

Polycarbonate and acrylic (for the main robot body), PLA Pro with weather protective coating (for the Sloth shell)

Compute

Raspberry Pi Zero W (1 GHz clock speed, 512 MB RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth BLE). Teensy 3.2 (96 MHz clock speed, 64 kB RAM, 2 kB EEPROM, PWM, I2C interfaces)

Software

Raspberry Pi OS; high-level behavior control written in Python (running on the Raspberry PI Zero W); low-level control and hardware interface written in C++ (running on the Teensy 3.2)

Power

10,000 mAh, 1-cell LiPo battery, rechargeable using 2 6 V 9W solar panels through an MPPT circuit (1A max charge rate) with temperature monitoring

Cost
US $500