Danish Invention in the Running for Major International Prize

Our planet's rainforests are teeming with life. These biodiversity hotspots are home to more than half of all living animal and plant species on Earth.

But just as in Denmark, the rainforest's biodiversity is under pressure.

One of the major challenges is that we only know a fraction of the animals that live in the rainforests. Researchers are racing against time to discover and analyze species before they disappear.

Now, a new Danish invention could solve part of that problem.

Together, associate professor of engineering Claus Melvad from the Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering and professor Toke Thomas Høye from the Department of Ecoscience - both at Aarhus University - with the help of their respective research teams, have developed a device that can monitor biodiversity from the rainforest canopy.

The device, which resembles a kind of umbrella, is airlifted into the rainforest with a drone. It is dropped in the tree canopy and from there it films, listens, and measures all the animals in the vicinity.

- The treetops are a blind spot for biodiversity researchers. It's difficult for us to climb up there, so we actually know very little about what lives in the foliage. That's why we’ve developed this solution, says Toke Thomas Høye.

The invention is part of an international research project the Danish researchers took part in. A team of more than 40 international researchers. The project is now in the running to win the XPRIZE Rainforest prize, which will be awarded on Friday in Brazil.

About XPRIZE Rainforest

XPRIZE Rainforest, a competition run by the XPRIZE Foundation, seeks to accelerate the innovation of novel technologies that rapidly and comprehensively survey biodiversity and produce impactful insights to inform conservation efforts globally.

XPRIZE is the world’s leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. For 30 years, their unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future.

Friday, awards will be given to the projects with the best solutions for mapping and monitoring biodiversity in the planet’s rainforests.

The XPRIZE Rainforest competition launched in 2019. Out of 300 teams across 70 countries, 13 teams qualified for semi-finals testing in Singapore, and a final 6 teams participated in the finals testing in the Brazilian Amazon.

The End of a Long Journey

A staggering $7.5 million is up for grabs for the researchers who developed the best solutions to monitor rainforest biodiversity.

Whether Claus Melvad and Toke Thomas Høye's group will take home the grand prize is difficult to say. They've reached the finals and are competing against just three other teams.

The prize presentation on Friday marks the culmination of a five-year competition that has demanded both hard work and creativity.

First, the project had to qualify for the competition. Then, they had to fight to advance to the semi-finals in Singapore, and finally, they competed in the finals in Brazil.

- It's been both fun and intense. In the final, we had 24 hours to collect data from an area, which we received the coordinates for at the last minute. Physically we weren’t aloud to enter. Instead, we had to send in robots to gather the data, he says, continuing:

- After the data collection, we had six hours to verify our data and 48 hours to analyze and write the report on which we will be judged. That's a very short time in the research world. But it was fun and challenging, and I think we came up with a really good solution.

Collaboration Across Disciplines

The project, in which the Danish researchers have participated, is called ETH BiodivX and is led by researchers from Switzerland. It was the Swiss researchers who, almost five years ago, tapped Toke Thomas Høye on the shoulder for his help.

- They asked me if I would participate in the project and the competition because of my experience with image recognition of species and interpretation of biodiversity data. It sounded exciting, so I contacted Claus Melvad, who I know is super skilled at building and developing new technologies.

- Although we are from two different institutes, our research groups have been working together on this project, and it has been incredibly rewarding. In fact, I would say that this is one of the things we are good at here at Aarhus University. Working together across disciplines.

Claus Melvad's team built both a rover that drove around the rainforest in Singapore collecting samples and the platform for the treetops. The latter was certainly no easy task.

- The device had to be light-weight, because it had to be flown in by drone and placed gently in the treetops. On the other hand it had to have some weight as if not to blow away. So we designed it to be unfolded like a net-umbrella with a pole down into the canopy," says Claus Melvad, continuing:

- This way, it sits stably in the branches and collects samples without moving too much. And it is possible for the drone to pick it up again and fly it back to camp.

On Friday evening, the winner of XPRIZE Rainforest will be revealed. The ceremony will take place in Brazil. The two Danes' research group is up against three other finalist teams.

See a video of the Xprize drone technology here: https://biodivx.org/ and here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C95q35Ivev_/.