Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/744696
16 NOVEMBER 2016 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com how fast their tool can go and exchange any other details about their respective robotic hands. Robots can't do everything With either version, robotics are still a ways from putting pickers out of work, Harburg cautioned. Robots don't do everything pop cul- ture makes them appear to do, at least not yet. They work best in controlled environments in which the produce is brought to them on a conveyor belt, not when they must move around through- out an unstructured and varied environ- ment, such as an orchard. They don't do two-handed tasks. They don't collaborate with humans at speed. And for all their sophistication, they still are limited in selecting and inspecting a good piece of fruit in the orchard, passing over a less savory one, the way an optical sorter can do inside the packing shed. "That kind of complex product sorting … is chal- lenging," Harburg said. The Soft Robotics hand is being used commercially in bakery warehouses and plastics plants and to handle con- sumer packaged goods. They are still in trials at food packing facilities for mushrooms, tomatoes and strawberries. "We are just at the beginning of evaluating the Soft Robotics gripper," Richard Harnden, director of research for Berry Gardens, one of the United Kingdom's largest berry and stone fruit production and marketing companies, said in an email. "Regrettably, it's far too soon to make any informed comment." The mobility and vision for orchards and fields will come next for the robotics industry. In fact, the company has tested its hand on apples, Harburg said, placing them on a sample tray at the November 2015 Pack Expo in Las Vegas. "I think all this stuff is coming quickly," Harburg said. Harburg showed the gripper at the Precision Farming Expo in January in Kennewick, Washington, sharing pic- tures and video of the rubbery digits deftly lifting and moving ripe tomatoes, mushrooms and cupcake papers. Others picked up sticks of celery and carrots in different orientations, arranging them in a uniform formation. The challenge is more than just del- icate surfaces, Harburg said. Robots can be made gentle and precise. The automotive industry uses them for tasks both heavy and light. Even in the food industry, robots frequently stack boxes or shrink wrap products. But all those tasks involve repetitive motions with objects of similar dimensions. Food in the fields — cherries, apples, eggs — are unique. That's one area the "octopus inspired" gripper could fit, adapting to a variety of shapes and sizes, he said. With rising costs of labor and increased food safety scrutiny, more robots may be on the way for farming. 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