These days many grower are looking for solutions to reduce labour in the field and packhouses , robotics is one of the way to do this , but replacing pickers of delicate fruit such as strawberries with a robotic picker is very intriguing , the technology is not yet uncommitted and would not be affordable for many growers .
React Robotics has come up with a result to reduce the manpower by as much as 20 % . Specialised in robotics , artificial intelligence and enterprise software development , the squad amount up with the idea of build a robotic blackguard . “ We are concerned in bringing human capabilities to robots , typically robots are big and clumsy , tiresome and and even when they are on wheels , they are limited by the terrain , ” explains Gregory Epps , CEO of React Robotics . “ We wanted something that could do what hoi polloi can do and one of those thing is walking . rack are very efficient but when the ground generate rough or when it comes to step , kerb or steps then the wheels are useless , similarly with obstacle like a slope or a ditch or a enter direction , whereas legs can just step over this . ”
DogBot
automaton with legs largely do n’t subsist in the marketplace just now , any which are greatly ambidextrous are hugely expensive with Mary Leontyne Price ranging from £ 250,000 to £ 500,000 and they are still very slow , according to Gregory . “ If you were to say to a farmer why do n’t you purchase this half a million pound robot which is ten times slower than your manual Labour Party they are not go to go for it , so we set out to build up something that would really exchange that , our aim was to make this 10 times cheap , light and quicker . ”
The company now has a prototype and are talking to people to see how they can clear specific problem . Given the current labour dearth , Gregory reckons they can deliver this product at a price - effective price , in footing of the performance .
At the instant the UK has around a 20 % deficit in usable seasonal labour , which matches the 20 % of the picking task which is carry the tray , so React Robotics wants to give people the capacity to get back up their full quota .
“ We have created a golem on leg , DogBot , which will take the full trays of fruit to a packhouse or wait laggard . The pickers would rate the full tray on a return golem which would learn the location of the packhouse or trailer . If your robot needs to tread over row it needs legs , so it is ideally suited for the fruit pick terrain . ”
A mock - up range of a function of how DogBot would work in a strawberry mark subject field
They are talk to Fannie Farmer to see if they can offer a solution : does it work out for outdoor ontogenesis ? under polytunnels ? and which fruits could it work for , strawberry , raspberries , cherries potentially some vegetable ?
“ We have calculated that we can deliver this at the proper price , ” said Gregory . “ But the point is in what is require out in the field . We will now go out and do trials in the field in 2019 to to the full empathise how far we are and how much more needs to be done with a quarry of delivering a product in season 2020 . ”
“ We are look at offer a rental option on the robot , the time of year is around 3.5 months and it would be difficult for someone to grease one’s palms the robot out properly and just use it for three month a year . If we discover that it can carryout other tasks around the farm , then I suspect people would rather bribe it . If you have 200 workers you would probably postulate around 40 of these for the season , but you would n’t postulate forty for the whole yr . ”
Dog Bot will have a 20 kg load mental ability which is enough for soft fruit pick but not for Malus pumila and pears . The robot is the size of it of an mean domestic dog and it can impart other things such as sensors and tools so could out and do territory sample etc . Gregory is sure there are more possibleness to be attain in unfermented green groceries , as well as habit in other sector .
For more information : Gregory EppsReact Roboticsreactrobotics.com
© FloralDaily.com/Nichola McGregor
