Inventors have high hopes for robotic tree planter

MAPLE RIDGE — Nick Birch and Tyler Rhodes hope they are unleashing a bit of forestry’s future in a recently cleared patch of forest in the hills above Maple Ridge: the Tree Rover, a robot capable of planting trees. The concept is pure R&D at this point — think of it as pre-startup, in the terminology of tech business. The third-year electrical engineering students are pursuing it as part of an entrepreneurial co-op term at the University of Victoria.