Last week I lamented the fact that robot house removalists did not yet exist. Well the lament of many a farmer is that it is difficult to find good help to pick fruit and other seasonal crops. The work is back breaking, relentless and not particularly well paid.
The solution? Robots that can identify ripe fruit and pick it when needed.
What does the robot need to be able to do?
Identify what is a piece of fruit
Identify which pieces of fruit are ripe and ready to be picked
Pick the fruit without damaging it and the plant
Continue to do this without stopping until enough fruit has been picked
There are a number of companies around the world trying to develop machines that will achieve these 4 goals. They are using a range of emerging but converging technologies including; Artificial Intelligence, robotics, GPS, machine vision, drones, micro satellites and material science.
Drones and micro satellites are used for the inspection of fields and identification of pests and weeds. Imaging can be used to identify the quality of plant growth (see Australian startup Flurosat as an example). Farmers are able to identify what plants need weeding, which plants need fertilizer and what is ready for harvest.
GPS is used for positioning robots (and tractors and watering equipment and a host of other farm equipment that can be automatically positioned). Robotics and be used for weeding and harvesting. Robotic weeders can reduce the amount of pesticide used to kill weeds and reduce the accidental damage to crops from pesticides. The farmer can manage individual plants and understand what is happening to each plant. This not only reduces costs it increases quality.
AI and machine vision are used to identify what is a piece of fruit and is it ready to be harvested. This is still a developing field and prototypes are in production. It is easy to envisage a future when robotic fruit pickers are sent to pick the highest quality fruit in the desired quantity. Apples, citrus, strawberries, leafy greens and grapes are the types of crops big enough initially to justify the investment to automate picking. Others will no doubt follow in time.
The greatest challenge with this automation is that every piece of fruit is unique. Robots are great at performing the same task over and over without variation. The challenge here is to be able to make an individual decision with each piece of fruit. Once the fruit is picked you can not put it back on the plant. Mistakes can be costly. Each decision is important to the overall profitability of the farm.
What will all the backpackers do when the fruit picking season has been taken over by the robots?
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and give the start-up a shout out to my readers if it is something that I think they could use. If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com
Till next week.