According to Business Insider after hearing a radio program describe the labor-intensive work of forest researchers, 16-year old Maksim Mikhailov had an idea- to build a machine that helps the researchers collect their data. Mikhailov's machine is named the Forester, and its job is to explore forests and hit trees with its mallet. It's a robotic version of a technique that human tree experts often use, called "sounding," to help their appraisal of a tree's health.
