Posted on 06/01/2022 9:00:25 PM PDT by Cronos
Two robots developed by Fieldwork Robotics, a spinout company from the University of Plymouth, have been harvesting the berries round the clock in polytunnels in a field near Odemira in south-west Portugal.
... The robots, which cost £2m to develop, stand 1.8 metres (5ft 11in) tall and each is fitted with four 3D-printed plastic arms that simultaneously pick raspberries – among the hardest fruit to pick, as they are softer than other berries and grow on tall bushes at varying heights.
When the first iteration of the robot went on trial in the UK three years ago, it had one harvesting arm that gingerly approached the fruit and took a full minute to pick and deposit a berry into a punnet. Since then its sensor technology and grippers have been completely redesigned to reduce slippage and harvesting time.
“We are making real progress in the development of our harvesting robots,” said Rui Andres, Fieldwork’s chief executive. “Raspberries are very sensitive so we have had to develop technology that can apply enough pressure to release the fruit from the stem without damaging it. At the same time, our sensors are now so advanced that they can tell if the fruit is ready to be harvested or not, meaning what can be sold is all that is picked.”
...The firm is aiming to have a robot picking 25,000 raspberries a day, compared with 15,000 for a human working an eight-hour shift.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Picking soft fruit is back breaking, low paid work. If robots can do it, it changes migration patterns and work
I , for one, welcome our new robotic overlords !
I think that kind of work is still known as Stoop Labor.
My knees and back disqualified me from that kind of work over 30 years ago.
Wait until Joe Biden’s latest Trojan Horse full of all those ‘energetic’ illegal aliens finds out that fruit plucking job they were banking on is quickly being phased out for machines.
There will be Mucho Anger, while my Robots gently beep.
I guess migrant labor have priced themselves out of the labor market. I know that a farmer near my house in Oregon plowed his raspberry field under because Mexican labor had become too expensive.
I might have picked raspberries when I was 10, but strawberries were the thing where I lived.
The food line image.... scary.
Always wanted Rosey the Robot.
At least we’ll get soup, and we’ll be happy...
Robots don’t crap where they pick.
The Raspberries of Wrath?
You are right, this can have a very real impact.
They would be better than the current overlords.
I’ve picked only in a “pick and take” farm and it is back breaking work. Looking at the declining birth rates globally, this will make sense in 10 years. The problem will be that it is going to be cost effective in 5 years.
People’s lot in life1 improves. The lady who came in the 80s and 90s to pick fruits, she sent her kids to university in Mexico city and their lot in life improved. Now central Americans come...
Headline states raspberry, photo shows strawberry = fake news. sarc.
whoops, forgot to put on my glasses.
So, we’ll soon have a solution to Mexicans here and can see a Day Without Mexicans soon?
Years ago I was working at a vineyard and talked to the guy about his laborers. He said that years ago the white kids would still pick grapes as it didn’t require stooping down or using laters - the fruit was pretty much right in front of you.
But now (well, 10 years ago I suppose) he said that he can only get Mexicans to do the work.
stomp canes with heavy boots, pick berries, enjoy
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