On Monday 13th January 2020, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmickl from the Karl Franzens University in Graz visited the University of Paderborn for a faculty colloquium. In his lecture, he spoke about the use of robots to maintain biodiversity and used a vivid everyday example to draw the attention of the audience to insect loss in recent years. For instance, where previously many moths could be observed when a garage was illuminated by the headlights of a car, today it is a miracle when a single moth appears. This reduction is not noticeable to society because it does not occur quickly, but over a long period of time.
Prof. Dr. Schmickl then explained how an ecosystem works and its most important feature the ecosystem feedback loop. If one aspect of this loop disappears, so does the feedback loop and the ecosystem then breaks down. The key types are particularly important. In this context, he spoke of a mass extinction, which is why it is important to protect the ecosystems. He also emphasized that one should ask which species occur in a particularly large number of feedback loops and are therefore important for the stability of their ecosystems. In his opinion, it should be called the insect apocalypse rather than the decline in honeybees. He also believes that the collapse of ecosystems is the real problem of our time and not the rise in sea level or the replacement of human labour by robots.
To find a solution to this problem, the question now is how can robots help. Robots can intensively monitor the ecosystems and if necessary, intervene manually, but also independently as well. They are also said to create new types of links by seamlessly embedding biomimetic robots into ecosystems that have already lost their key types.
Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Schmickl presented several experiments that he had carried out together with the “Artificial Life Lab”, that he has founded. He also spoke about the EU-funded “Flora Robotica” project, in which scientists from Paderborn are also involved. There, for the first time in history, a feedback loop between two species, fish and honeybees, was closed by autonomous robots. Both endangered species are important to humans and ecosystems.
There are two different types of ecosystems. On the one hand, replacing a species with a robotic replacement, and on the other hand, creating a completely new kind of connection that has never existed before.
Finally, Prof. Dr. Schmickl stressed that there is an urgent need for action since we have probably passed the turning point for the decline in ecosystems. It takes bold moves and both research, law and technology should address this problem. Ecological research and complex science would also therefore have to be intensified.
