engineering

WeRobotics

WeRobotics is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand WeRobotics rather than just read about it. In short: WeRobotics is a Swiss-American non-profit organization that connects local experts in drone, data and AI technologies. Founded in 2015, WeRobotics has 41 independent Flying Labs that are located in the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa.

Key takeaways

WeRobotics belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WeRobotics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WeRobotics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WeRobotics is a Swiss-American non-profit organization that connects local experts in drone, data and AI technologies. Founded in 2015, WeRobotics has 41 independent Flying Labs that are located in the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa.

History WeRobotics incorporated on December 15, 2015, as a 501c3 organization from a collaboration between U.S-based UAViator and Switzerland- based Drone Adventures. In 2016, WeRobotics, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, tested the development of local knowledge hubs focused on drones and other robotics applications in three countries: Nepal, Tanzania and Peru, which resulted in setup of first Flying Labs. In 2017, WeRobotics started collaboration with USAID, Hewlett Foundation, IADB, and MIT Solve. In the same year, WeRobotics launched new Flying Labs in Fiji and Panama to explore activities in the South Pacific and Central America. In 2018, WeRobotics introduced its network model to allow for scale of the Flying Labs Network. By end of 2018, the network grew to 17 independent Flying Labs globally, which later grew to 41 by December 2023. It has since grown to include Autodesk Foundation, IADB, Omidyar Network, Fondation Botnar, Jansen PrimeSteps Foundation, World Bank and WFP to mention few. In 2022, Sonja Betschart, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, was selected for Ashoka Fellow in Switzerland, and she appeared on 2024 list of 50 Over 50 by Forbes.

Activities Since 2016, WeRobotics has worked with communities to create knowledge hubs, called Flying Labs, to support and train local partners to address local problems with technology solutions by deploying technology for social good applications (defined as applications that link to one or several SDGs), including drone data collection & analysis and transportation.

2015-2020 In 2016, WeRobotics in Nepal established the Katmandu Flying Lab which helps in creating and supplying of maps during natural disasters such as earthquakes and landslides. In 2017, WeRobotics in Peru helped in addressing the Peruvian Amazon basin medical issues, and Amazon animal bites by rapid deployment of health care resources using UAVs. In March 2018, in collaboration with the Insect Pest Control Laboratory of the International Atomic Energy Agency and during a Zika virus outbreak, WeRobotics introduced 284,200 sterile male mosquitoes around Carnaíba do Sertão, Brazil to interrupt the reproductive behavior of the fertile mosquitoes. In May 2018, WeRobotics ran an event to update and expand the Humanitarian UAV Code of Conduct. In 2019, in partnership with Red Wing Labs, WeRobotics worked for the U.S. Centre for Disease Control as a delivery in response to medical emergencies in Papua New Guinea. WeRobotics worked with the Red Cross in Fiji to map damage to buildings caused by Cyclone Keni.

2021-present In 2021, the company released a children's picture book called Ariel & Friends about the use of drones for social good. Since 2022, Flying Labs in Uganda has been helping mitigate risks for coffee farmers by capturing multispectral and RGB imagery via drones with cameras to help spot crop health issues that are often invisible to the human eye alone. Flying Labs works with World Vision in implementation of various projects, like in large scale reforestation in Kenya in 2021, and in farmer-managed natural regeneration in Tanzania. In May 2022, Kenyan Flying Labs with EPFL's Laboratory of Urban Transport Systems (LUTS), launched a joint experiment to test LUTS' innovative approach to traffic congestion in Nairobi. Flying Labs helps in surveying of land for irrigation and agriculture in Burkina Faso.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WeRobotics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WeRobotics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WeRobotics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WeRobotics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WeRobotics

In research: WeRobotics appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WeRobotics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WeRobotics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 establishments, 501(c)(3) organizations, Humanitarian aid organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WeRobotics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study WeRobotics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WeRobotics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WeRobotics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WeRobotics in simple terms?

Why does WeRobotics matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WeRobotics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WeRobotics.