Industrial - Bachelor
TEROS is a pneumatic handheld seed planting tool, designed to reduce fatigue, increase efficiency and reduce cost of large-scale carbon planting. This tool allows for quick and effective polyculture planting through the utilisation of seedbanks. Using ergonomic centred design this tool can be adapted for Australia’s harsh climates for all types of users.
Australia is facing many large issues when it comes to conservation of flora. These issues range from general policy, post plant care, seed banks, and current planting systems. Stated by the DCCE It has been found that between 1995 and 2017 there has been a 75% decrease in threatened plants population. These alarming statistics can also be seen between 2021, in which 1395 plants were considered under threat. This number of threatened plants has now grown to 1,700 in 2025.
Current plant conservation and restoration can be seen to be in effective, slow, and always trying to catch the growing amount of damage caused by large scale deforestation. The opportunity to implement a efficient, affordable, reliable solution to assist in conservation of Australian flora is clear.
Findings from this research lead to a need for a large scale planting solution that reduced costs, can be transported easily, can be used in remote locations, keeps people working, assisted in fatigue and ensured a reliable and consistent performance. Market gaps identified also supported these needs for a handheld solution to planting over large areas of land. These areas of land were found to range from 2-3 km squared from post mining to 300 – 400m squared. From these findings a design brief was developed to tackle all these issues.
Current products being used within the market have been identified as too expensive, difficult to transport, lack reliability, or provide a lack of automation. Due to the increase of threatened flora species year over year within Australia, something must change. TEROS looks at maintaining human interaction whilst improving the experience and speed of users. TEROS not only assists the user but will create impact across how the current system works.
Design a hand held product for large scale carbon planting, with the goal of increasing efficiency whilst reducing labour intensity. The product must create a efficient and reliable alternative to current planting methods. This design should accommodate for the polyculture planting system. Users have been identified as 22 – 30 year olds with the goal of expanding this age range through product implementation. This design should be low cost, light weight and be intuitive. This design should also be capable of adapting to varying extreme weather conditions.
TEROS is design to withstand the harsh climates that can be faced across Australia. Most sites that this tool will be used on are remote. This design provides a solution that requires low maintenance and that can be recharged, refilled and used with minimal power and no cell service. The materials used are a mix of high-quality stainless steel and PA6 plastics. The weight of this tool will be around 1.9kg (average large shovel weight) including the 600g Co2 canister.
This product has been design to be tough and durable. The flat back of the handle allows the tool to be rested in a tray bed easily. Due to the quick release of the canister this can also be removed in transport. TEROS with the canister has the same weight as a large shovel making it easy to manoeuvre and carry around rough terrain.
Features have been implemented into the design to allow for efficient and effective user interaction. Providing a system that allows for seed selection whilst on the move creates an effective and seamless experience. Allowing for up to six unique trees to be planted at one time also allows for effective polyculture planting. utilising a pneumatic system allows for reliability to be controlled as it is water proof, low maintenance, and durable. This system, due to its simplicity requires no cellular connection and creates a rough and reliable all in one product.
A major cost for tree planting which was found through research is the transport of trees and equipment. Heavy loads of trees require trucks to transport which comes with higher cost and emissions. Seeds provide a solution to this. Utilising how small seed are, it allows you to carry 1,360 seeds which the equivalent weight of a small sapling. This will greatly reduce transport costs whilst allowing for a greater amount of possible trees to be planted.
Thomas Thwaites is a 2025 Industrial Design graduate and second-year Mechanical Engineering student. He currently works at ShapeLabs as a Junior Industrial Designer, where he contributes to the development of innovative and practical design solutions. His interests lie in solving challenging and unique problems through creativity and technical innovation, combining design thinking with engineering processes.