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This fully automated, steam-powered planting robot, equipped with ground-friendly feet and a flexible planting arm is a concept design planned to hit the forests of Sweden by 2030.

Winner of the Red Dot award design contest, the eco-friendly robot, created by Anna-Karin Bergkvist, is designed to take the hard labor out of planting trees in an environmentally friendly way.

Not only does the robot use steam power to operate, but it also uses the same steam to kill off competing vegetation as it prepares a planting spot.

Forest waste products such as pellets or woodchips also help run the machine, which features a hydraulic system, using water instead of oil.

Seedlings are stored on the back of the robot and fed into a revolving cartridge in the planting head, the planting arm then extends forward to plant the seedlings around the machine. The seedlings are planted with a protective barrier made of biodegradable plastic, which protects the seedling from bugs without the use of toxic insecticides.

The robot can navigate through the planting area using a high-precision GPS and sensors, as well as internal maps based on laser scanner data. The movement of the machine is pre-programmed by laying out routes and boundaries in virtual forest software.