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About

Federica Bonini is pioneering the integration of robotics and artificial intelligence for ecological monitoring, with a specific focus on preserving Europe’s most vulnerable grassland habitats. Her research centers on developing autonomous systems—including quadrupedal robots like ANYmal C—to detect and catalog plant species in complex natural environments, particularly the species-rich EU Natura 2000 habitat 6210* in the central Apennines of Italy. Bonini’s major contributions include creating the first labeled datasets for robotic plant detection in Italian Annex I habitats, enabling artificial vision models to identify Mediterranean flora across four distinct ecosystems. Her 2023 dataset on grassland monitoring has already garnered 9 citations, while her subsequent 2025 datasets are establishing new benchmarks for automated biodiversity assessment. By addressing the critical gap in robotic habitat monitoring, Bonini’s work demonstrates how cutting-edge robotics and computer vision can support conservation efforts, offering scalable solutions for ecological surveys that are traditionally labor-intensive. Her research not only advances the field of environmental robotics but also provides practical tools for preserving threatened ecosystems in the face of climate change and habitat loss.