Good Fruit Grower

August 2012

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Harvest/Postharvest Robotic harvester would be costly R obotics expert Dr. Sanjiv Singh says fully auto- mated robotic harvesting systems are looking more feasible technologically than a few years ago, but whether they would be robust enough for orchard work and affordable to the growers is still in doubt for the time being. Singh, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University's An automated harvester would need to be affordable and robust, as well as technically feasible. by Geraldine Warner Robotics Institute, is leading a multistate project on Com- prehensive Automation for Specialty Crops, which aims to develop methods to improve production efficiency, identify threats from pests and diseases, and respond to food safety hazards. What it doesn't aim to do—at least, not yet—is develop a robotic apple harvester. Singh said when the CASC project began in 2008, the scientists involved decided not to work on automatic har- vesting. It would be such a huge endeavor, they agreed, that it would overwhelm the rest of the project. Not only that, but what would be the use of developing a machine that cost $2 million dollars? Or could only pick one apple every ten seconds (10 times slower than a human)? "The gee-whiz factor runs cold pretty quickly," he said. "We could have done it, but we needed it to be all three of these things for it to be a success: affordable, robust, and technically feasible. Those are the reasons I personally think it's not a short- term or even medium-term solution. It would require some significant funding, and I don't know if there are deep enough pockets to go after that." CASC faculty decided instead to work with DBR Con- veyor Concepts in Michigan who are developing a har- vest-assist machine that improves harvest efficiency by eliminating the need for workers to climb ladders. That's the type of technology that will reach growers quicker, Singh points out. Tests with the DBR last season in Washington State showed that workers were 20 percent more efficient working with the machine than when pick- ing fruit conventionally. Singh said the developers and scientists think it reasonable to expect that the machine could increase worker efficiency by 100 percent within three years, which would mean the grower could get by with half the number of workers. "That's something that people can go to the bank with," he said. "There's a lot more that can happen to the machine." Automated harvesting Meanwhile, scientists at Carnegie Mellon are wonder- ing, four years after the CASC project began, whether the time is ripe to begin looking at fully automated harvest- ing. Tree architecture is changing, with more growers adopting formal training systems where there is less 6 AUGUST 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER Tony Koselka, right, is pictured with colleague Derek Morikawa, center, during a visit to Auvil Fruit Company's Vantage ranch in 2006. Koselka, a founder of Vision Robotics, tells orchard manager Del Feigal that the system would be ideal for robotic harvesting. obstruction of fruit by the foliage, and the cost of technology continues to decrease. "We may start to consider this," Singh said. "We've been doing some experiments in our lab, trying to see how hard it is." For example, they've done trials with industrial robotic arms—the kind that would survive repeated motions—to find out how precisely they can locate something and reach out and grab it. "When you watch them, they're car- toonish," Singh said. "Right now, they have slow, deliberate motions, and the kinds of grabbers we have are pneumatic and don't look quite right." Whereas a person who's good at pick- ing might pick an apple per second, these robotic arms might take ten seconds per apple. But the good news is that the robotics "If the scout gets you 25 percent more efficiency, that's enough to pay for the cost of it." —Tony Koselka are far cheaper than they used to be. Five years ago, one robotic arm might cost $150,000, which didn't make economic sense. Now, they are ten times cheaper. (Continued on page 8) www.goodfruit.com photo by geraldine warner

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