Meet the STEMbot: a stem climbing robot that can climb stems to monitor under canopies for pests. It has high friction compliant wheels to climb stems as thin as 7mm. It has 3D printed components for its structure. This robot uses 2 pairs of 700:1 sub-micro planetary gear motors. The wheels are cast from Ecoflex elastomer. This robot relies on semantic mapping, PIN-SLAM localization, and receding-horizon planning to move up plant stems and detect pests.
The above video shows this robot in action. You can find out more project here.