Posted on 07/10/2015 7:49:14 AM PDT by Red Badger
Dr Christopher Lehnert talked about the potential robots held for the agriculture industry at CQ University yesterday.
A STEREOTYPICAL farmer might wear overalls and gumboots in 2015.
But in not long at all, he could be a state-of-the-art robot.
Agricultural robotics research fellow Dr Christopher Lehnert spoke at CQUniversity yesterday about robots being developed to pick fruit and detect weeds.
One problem they could solve was harvesting labour shortages.
"It's a causal workforce problem. (For farmers) their really high risk is getting a workforce to pick the fruit," Mr Lehnert said.
"There's not a worry about job losses. We're just shifting the paradigm. Instead of being in the field, they will control robots."
He hoped to be well on the way towards a commercial fruit-picking design by the end of next year.
Another part of his research was designing robots for broadacre weed management.
"We are looking at taking the human out of the tractor and getting an autonomous platform," he said.
"The large machines they use on farms do a lot of damage to the soil. They compact the soils and destroy them.
"But robots would be smaller, they wouldn't cause this issue."
Problems with herbicide resistance are costing farms millions, but Dr Lehnert said robots could help solve this problem.
"You normally have to do a 'double knock' or multiple applications of herbicide.
"As the robot has a vision system on board it can detect the weed and apply herbicide or alternative mechanical methods to kill the weeds individually.
"Instead of blanket spraying the farm, you reduce your costs in herbicide use.
"This is close to commercial application."
The source of our immigration problem is in the White House, not the orchards.
It starts with picking fruit, next thing you know, they're loitering on street corners and raping people.
Pretty soon we’ll hear of ‘Robot Rights’ and voting will be one of them.......................
LOL always loved Mr Hayney
Of course not, not for Mexicans, because they will build the robot factories in Mexico. And the job losses there won't kick in until they start having robots build the other robots, then we'll all live in that wonderful utopia where we have all been relieved of job lock......................except for serving our robot masters that is.
My wife is Jewish. From America.
I can see in the not to distant future when whatever food you eat has never been touched by human hands until you buy it and get it home.
Same will be true of almost every product on the market, but you know what, there will still be multitude of problems.
It may be that just one acre of land properly zoned for agriculture could mean making a fortune by producing the old fashion way, then again global corporate supported gov’t mandated food safety regulation would put an end to such idea’s, getting in the game is already being made intensely costly, difficult and will very soon be impossible for the average Joe.
My wife is Jewish. From America.........................I’m not gonna say it............nope, not me...............................gotta get away from the keyboard, Red!........................
This decade robots will increasingly venture into the fields, in the 2020’s they will take over completely in the US (except for the Amish, Hippie communes, and a few niches).
There is no avoiding the economics of it. Manual labor jobs are going away entirely within a generation. It will quickly spread over the whole world, as robot costs drop, and capabilities skyrocket.
We have had mechanical harvesters for some crops for over a century, but what is changing are the sensors, decision-making and dexterity of the new generation of machines. They are approaching human task functionality, and will then quickly surpass it.
Cheaper, faster and better are all coming. Things that are now done in the factory, like sorting and quality assurance, will be enabled at the point of picking - leaving the unripe to ripen, and improve yield. Additional processing steps like cleaning, freezing or canning could be pushed forward within minutes or hours of picking to improve quality. And superhuman sensors and testing could be incorporated to ensure the maximum sweetness and food safety.
Consumer prices should drop and quality improve.
Even with robots, they would have to battle insect pests, drought and weeds......................I can see a group of tiny robots working 24/7 going around the fields pulling weeds or cutting them down among the crops, then other tiny robot hordes hunting insects and killing them with lasers..................
You could use your general purpose household robot to farm the back yard, while you sleep or knock back beers...
You could use your general purpose household robot to farm the back yard, while you sleep or knock back beers................made by your brewer robot.....................
Perhaps unemployed American blacks can leave the American cities for the rich agricultural job market in australia
Labor intensive, seasonal agricultural work is definitely a place where automation is needed.
Once we have general purpose robots that can approximate human strength, dexterity and mobility; they will be like an iphone - just download an app, and its a whole other tool.
Gardener, cook, maid, security guard, brewer, baker, cheesemaker, plumber, doctor, DJ, dance partner, all-around handyman. Everyone will want one.
Can't wait to see what the robot version of "auto correct" looks like.
“Gardener, cook, maid, security guard, brewer, baker, cheesemaker, plumber, doctor, DJ, dance partner, all-around handyman.”
Oh come on.
The first thing will be sexbots. 50% of the data on the internet is porn.
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