If you have ever dreamed about your own sandbox robot, with which you can do practically everything – you are in the right place. As you may know – Leo Rover is a fully configurable, open-source machine, which means that you can set it up depending on your needs. Beginning from simple things like bringing your keys or a remote control from the shelf, ending up on complicated tasks like mapping the terrain, or checking the level of air pollution. 

But possibilities are limitless. There is so much stuff you can do with it, it's even hard to pick one thing! Lucky for you, here you will find 4 offbeat ways of Leo Rover usage that you might not have thought about, which definitely make Leo Rover the “Rover of all trades”.

Radiation Mapping

There are 2 cases where similar rovers would normally be used – where people can go but (for some reason) they don’t want to, or where people don’t have any possibility to get into.

Checking the radiation area is definitely the first case. The HH Wills Physics laboratory team from the University of Bristol has decided to use our robot to map the radiation levels in Fukushima, Japan (learn more in this article). It was a great opportunity for both sides to cooperate – they had the whole software and hardware for the measurements, and the only thing they needed was a functional ground robot, which would drive through the entire contaminated area. If you want to see the results of that experiment – check out the video:

‍

For these kinds of tasks, Leo Rover is definitely the best choice. Normal flying drones are not able to do that in such a precise way (not to mention checking soil radiation). Apart from that, you can also use it for checking weather conditions or the quality of your soil. Let's face it – that job has to be done with wheels on the ground.

Animal Husbandry

If the title surprised you – we reveal our cards! The next use case will be our cooperation with the FLOX company to monitor flock performance and birds’ welfare.

FLOX uses their AI technology to check ammonia concentration and other factors in chicken sheds. Leo Rover in this case is being used as a fully autonomous machine, that is driving in the shed, collecting and processing information that is further handed to the owners. Thanks to that, they know how to treat the birds to make them grow healthier. There is no doubt that the future of any husbandry or agriculture will strongly depend on new technology solutions – and Leo Rover is one of those.

Photography

As you may know, there is a built-in camera in Leo Rover. But obviously, that’s not the quality you need for professional photography.

One of our customers ordered the Rover to take photos of wild lions from a close distance during his trip to South Africa. The photos could only be done using a relatively quiet and small machine that would slowly crawl near the lion pack. As humans can easily put themselves in danger, and flying drones are too noisy and scare wild animals, Leo Rover became just the right tool to do the job. We decided to design a special articulated construction on top of the robot to act as an external camera pan-tilt mount and full-metal cover keeping the expensive equipment safe from the curious cats.

Here are some awesome desert shots taken by our customer:

Urban Sewage

The next place where people always have trouble reaching is an urban sewage system.

The next client from the list is using Leo Rover to collect data on water flow and level of contamination together with potential pipes damage. Thanks to the small size of the Rover, it can fit into some of the bigger pipes and, and with some extra equipment on top, map the sewers bringing the data to the inspector. That’s definitely a great solution both for sewage companies, road passages, and crawl spaces inspectors. The Rover can be used to prevent any dangerous situations which can end up with pipeline damage or even urban disasters. Leo Rover might be a great tool for new startups as well. Think about it – you innovate a breathtaking and astonishing solution for human prosperity and the Leo Rover platform gives you the tools to make it mobile and effective. 

‍

Where else could Leo Rover be used?

Possibilities are limitless. You can use Leo Rover as a fully autonomous machine to accomplish any special tasks, or you can treat it as a tool for your own solutions. If you still don’t have any idea what to do with Leo Rover – think about any recurring job you don’t like to do or any place that you shouldn’t, or can’t reach – when you come up with something, then definitely Leo Rover will become handy to help you get there!

Do you want to see other user stories? Check them out here.