LINK}Inflatable Conveyor Belt:
Posted on 04/08/2006 3:25:10 PM PDT by Reaganesque
April 8, 2006 Robots are on the march again into the last bastion of labour intensive industry - farming and horticulture. Researchers from Warwick HRI (the University of Warwick's horticultural arm), and its manufacturing engineering section, Warwick Manufacturing Group, are working on a suite of robots and automated systems which could transform farming and horticulture over the next decade. One of the best ideas we’ve seen in a long time is this inflatable conveyor belt developed for UK-based agricultural machinery company Aeropick. Due to an ingenious wheeled and inflatable system, up to 100 metres of powered conveyor belt can be deployed within five minutes to aid the agricultural and horticultural harvesting process and offers massive labour cost savings along with significant increases in productivity. As the belt can be set up to variable length of between 25 metres and 100 metres, it is highly adaptable allowing crops to be processed at high speed straight to cool storage, washing, sorting, grading etc Amazingly, there’s also a mushroom picking robot and Robot Grass Cutter too.
The inflatable conveyor system can be driven into an open field or covered growing area on the Brumby VariTrak base vehicle. The Varitrack can vary its wheel spacing from 1 to 1.5 metres to suit crop spacing and has an additional 10KVA of power for processing, cooling, washing, sorting etc. in the field.
The robotic mushroom picker robot uses a charged coupled camera to spot and select only mushrooms of the exact size required for picking achieving levels of accuracy far in excess of human labour. The mushrooms are then picked by a suction cup on the end of a robotic arm. Whilst the speed of picking is currently just over half that of a human - the mushrooms and the robot can be set to pick 24 hours a day right through the night without the need for a break. The researchers also hope to increase the speed of picking to much closer to that of a human worker.
Mowing the lawn is a drudge but for growers, farmers, even golf course owners, with large amounts of grass land it's a massive problem with every tractor requiring a skilled employee to manage such pastures. Researchers in the Warwick Manufacturing Group are developing a new method which can allow a farmer or grower to deploy multiple robotic grass cutting machines at the same time all under the supervision of just a single employee. They are working with the "Ransomes Spider" grass cutting device which can already be remotely controlled and can even mow on 40 degree inclines. They are replacing that remote control with a computer that can use its own data sensors attached to the mower, to autonomously travel across fields working in groups with other robotic mowers ensure that the field is mowed as quickly as possible.
LOL! I'd rather sneak a six-pack of Lone Star in with me, and give it the All-American treatment, rather than recycle euro-swill. I wonder if I could ship some over UPS in advance?
1st you have to enlist in the Air Force. Then go through about 4-5 advanced tech training courses that last 1.5 years. Only then are you armed with the tools required to screw up European countries. I think I did my job well.
maybe they'll take the time to come here legally?
Nah! They'll just get on welfare that much sooner.
what's going to happen to many third world nations when even labor isn't necessary via technology?
Survival of the fittest. Dog eat dog.
Either that or the US will have to up the foreign aid.
"Illegals from Mexico sre prime suspects since Mexico is highly unionized and it's part of their culture."
Honestly, I have no idea why the latin culture in central and southern america is so extreme in their political beliefs. When and where did it all start?
Pemex is their nationalized oil industry, and is said to be the core interest group that directs governing in Mexico. Without the oil, Mexico wouldn't be much of anything...it's remittance from America is said to be only used for food. It's a terrible waste to see a country just south of us as horredous as it is.
I really sometimes think that it would best if we just governed Mexico without the mess of asking the people's opinion there.
No. The US will just say shape up or F-Off.
"Many of those 'disillusioned union workers' are actually good, solid Archie Bunker and Joe Six-pack types. Not too much of a stretch for them to go conservative. Many are waking up to the fact that the Dems and their leaders have ties to gun-grabbing commie pukes, and voting Pubbie."
I know...many of my family memebers are those 'Archie Bunker' guys. I think they become so invested in unions, that they don't see the bad reasons not to support dems. The dems used to be a reasonable party quite sometime ago...those days are long gone.
It really sickens me to see Nancy Pukeosi.
"Either that or the US will have to up the foreign aid."
I sometimes wish Mexico was far away like Africa. So that if they wanted to come here, they would most likely have to do it legally...but they even have illegals in Japan that are mexican, so it will never be completely out of the picture.
I think that it's eventual that the market of labor jobs will be near obselete and service and technology will be one of the few things needed. Ironically it's the most privately schooled people in India that will dominate the world economy in the future...mark my word.
If we don't end-up flooded with poverty we'll still be marching along with them.
I believe you deserve a medal! My post was not meant as a negative criticism.
bookmk ping at #69 , I'll FReepmail tomorrow CowboyJay [good thread]
When can we get robots to replace Congress. Or do robots have too much of a soul to replace the people of Congress?
It was the labor unions in South Africa that set up apartheid, to protect the white workers from black competition. They had the power to get the government to pass these laws, to restrict companies from hiring blacks.
More power to robots and farmings--this tech could bring back small farming in the US, which would make for better produce.
So, why don't illegals get jobs as garbage men?
Don't tell walking behind a stinking garbage truck in all kinds of weather, hefting tons of reeking, dripping garbage is an easier job than mowing lawns.
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