67-gram Stembot robot climbs plant stems and builds 3D models to autonomously hunt pests
LexiLove · x · 2026-10-06
A 67-gram climbing robot called Stembot can scale plant stems from 7mm to 33mm in diameter, transition onto branches at angles up to 90 degrees, and traverse curved branches with radii as tight as 50mm.
Using an Intel RealSense depth camera, it generates a 3D model of the plant and semantically labels stems as traversable and leaves as non-traversable. Given a target, it plans a route along stems to a vantage point not hidden by leaves — enabling autonomy.
The goal is spotting pests hidden among leaves before they cause crop damage. For now the robot relies on tethered power and compute, and swaying live plants remain a challenge.
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