Reef restoration is a slow process, with divers planting coral fragments one at a time by hand. But roboticists are now developing automated planters that could change the game What if, rather than coral reef rehabilitation remaining a tedious and difficult manual process, conservationists could harness robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles to transform it into an industrial-scale endeavor? Scott Bainbridge/Australian Institute of Marine Science On Isla Grande, a bone-white island in Colombia’s Rosario archipelago, diving guides have gone out almost every day since 2018 to plant coral seedlings. Scattering the seafloor with “cookies”—small concrete disks laced with coral seedlings—these underwater gardeners managed to restore a significant portion of their island’s reef. Until, that is, a mass bleaching event hit in 2023. “We lost it all. Everything,” says Lavinia Fiori, one of Isla Grande’s guides and the architect of its restoration project. The future of corals is dire indeed.…