Thomas Schmickl on Finding New Ways to Protect Endangered Species and the Environment
"Bring the robots out of the lab and into the outside world because this makes things real“
Thomas Schmickl is the founder of the Artificial Life Laboratory and a professor at the Department for Zoology in the Institute of Biology at the University of Graz in Austria. He currently coordinates the FET Proactive project HIVEOPOLIS, and in the past was involved with several other projects including subCULTron, FloraRobotica and ASSISIBF. In this video he shares his thoughts on finding new ways to protect endangered species and the environment by integrating AI-based robotic animals, the innovation potential of his research, and the challenges FET projects can face when transitioning from the laboratory to real world applications.
This video interview of part of the FETFX Pills series, which aims to showcase the diverse work of EIC Pathfinder-FET projects including their innovation potential.
Cover photo by Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash
Research projects in this story
ASSISIbf
Finding new ways to protect endangered species and the environment by integrating artificial intelligence-based robotic animals
subCULTron
Monitoring the aquatic environmental conditions in the Venice lagoon using robots
flora robotica
Studied and re-created the symbiotic relationships between robots and plants to produce natural self-sustaining architectural elements
HIVEOPOLIS
Integrating honeybees into human lives as part of our future smart cities.
