I do like going to pick-your-own strawberry farms. Mmm, peak sweetness and flavour. But the summer heat, the bugs and prickly weeds. I'm already paying top dollar and having to do all the work myself. I'd like to pay a bit extra to use the fruit picking robot.
Robot fruit pickers might be a challenge for some of the 30,000 Seasonal Agricultural Workers in Canada if robots become cheap to build and operate such systems, though it could displace some workers, but optimistically it could allow some to move up into higher value positions of managing the robots and packaging. Or allow more extensive farming to turn more acreage over to intensive farming, especially where labour has been historically scarce such as more remote communities. As well, this could allow farmers to plant indeterminant fruit and vegetable crops - that keep producing all season long and require multiple or ongoing passes of picking.
1.10 Fruit farm gate value by commodity – thousands of Canadian dollars
2017
Apples 224,607
Blueberries[1] 203,353
Grapes[2] 158,774
Strawberries 128,184
Cranberries 114,921
http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/canadian-agri-food-sector-intelligence/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-fruit-industry-2017/?id=1526403930297#a1.11
One of the issues to innovation in tender fruit industry is the high cost of labour as cited by OFGA, and also the MaRS Discovery District in a report.
http://www.ofvga.org/issue/labour
https://www.marsdd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ontario_Tender_Fruit_Lab_Final_Report.pdf
See page 9.
The report is by the Ontario Tender Fruit Lab, whose mission "is helping to reimagine and bring about change in the Ontario fruit industry along the entire value network".
See also https://www.marsdd.com/systems-change/mars-solutions-lab/ontario-tender-fruit-lab/
This article in Fast Company shows how it's done.
This Strawberry-Picking Robot Gently Picks The Ripest Berries With Its Robo-Hand
https://www.fastcompany.com/40473583/this-strawberry-picking-robot-gently-picks-the-ripest-berries-with-its-robo-hand
Maybe Boston Robotic's SpotMini robot could be trained to pick a few nice juicy strawberries for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QqQLq5hsN4
And really, it's not just picking that robots can do.
Top 10 Robotic Applications in the Agricultural Industry https://blog.robotiq.com/top-10-robotic-applications-in-the-agricultural-industry
Halifax's Innovacorp, @innovacorp, put Nexus Robotics into it's acceleration program to develop a farm robot. https://innovacorp.ca/blog/spark-2017-now-update-nexus-robotics
Maybe they can hurry up for apple season so I can hang out in the shady animal petting area :)
Robot fruit pickers might be a challenge for some of the 30,000 Seasonal Agricultural Workers in Canada if robots become cheap to build and operate such systems, though it could displace some workers, but optimistically it could allow some to move up into higher value positions of managing the robots and packaging. Or allow more extensive farming to turn more acreage over to intensive farming, especially where labour has been historically scarce such as more remote communities. As well, this could allow farmers to plant indeterminant fruit and vegetable crops - that keep producing all season long and require multiple or ongoing passes of picking.
1.10 Fruit farm gate value by commodity – thousands of Canadian dollars
2017
Apples 224,607
Blueberries[1] 203,353
Grapes[2] 158,774
Strawberries 128,184
Cranberries 114,921
http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/canadian-agri-food-sector-intelligence/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-fruit-industry-2017/?id=1526403930297#a1.11
One of the issues to innovation in tender fruit industry is the high cost of labour as cited by OFGA, and also the MaRS Discovery District in a report.
http://www.ofvga.org/issue/labour
https://www.marsdd.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ontario_Tender_Fruit_Lab_Final_Report.pdf
See page 9.
The report is by the Ontario Tender Fruit Lab, whose mission "is helping to reimagine and bring about change in the Ontario fruit industry along the entire value network".
See also https://www.marsdd.com/systems-change/mars-solutions-lab/ontario-tender-fruit-lab/
This article in Fast Company shows how it's done.
This Strawberry-Picking Robot Gently Picks The Ripest Berries With Its Robo-Hand
https://www.fastcompany.com/40473583/this-strawberry-picking-robot-gently-picks-the-ripest-berries-with-its-robo-hand
Maybe Boston Robotic's SpotMini robot could be trained to pick a few nice juicy strawberries for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QqQLq5hsN4
And really, it's not just picking that robots can do.
Top 10 Robotic Applications in the Agricultural Industry https://blog.robotiq.com/top-10-robotic-applications-in-the-agricultural-industry
Halifax's Innovacorp, @innovacorp, put Nexus Robotics into it's acceleration program to develop a farm robot. https://innovacorp.ca/blog/spark-2017-now-update-nexus-robotics
Maybe they can hurry up for apple season so I can hang out in the shady animal petting area :)
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