A multinational engineering project aims to create an intelligent robotics platform that can identify and harvest specific types of crops to help foster sustainable agriculture.
The Clever Robots for Crops (CROPS) project -- a collaboration between universities from a number of countries -- is working on technology for a modular intelligent sensing and manipulation platform to harvest so-called “high value” crops, such as vegetables grown in a greenhouse, greenhouse vegetables, orchard fruits, and grapes used in making premium wines, according to the project’s Website.
The design goals of the project include creating a robotic platform intelligent enough to specifically spray certain types of plants or foliage. The robot also will have the ability to selectively harvest fruit by identifying the right type to pick, determining its ripeness, grasping it, and detaching it without injuring it.
An artist's rendition of how the intelligent robotics platform developed by the Clever Robots for Crops, or CROPS, project will function. The project, a collaboration between universities from a number of countries under the larger FP7 EU program, aims to design a robot that can identify and pick ripe crops, as well as target the correct plants for spraying with liquids. (Source: CROPS)
Researchers also aim to extend the use of techniques for detecting and classifying obstacles developed for CROPS to enable successful autonomous navigation and operation in plantations and forests.
CROPS researchers are using a range of technology -- including nanotechnology, materials, and new production technologies -- to create the robot. The project, which began in October 2010, is scheduled to run for four years. It may be some time after that before such a robot would be put into commercial use, even if the project is successful.
Countries with universities contributing research to CROPS include the Belgium, Chile, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden, among others. CROPS is part of the European Union Seventh Framework Program, or FP7.
Robots already are used fairly commonly in the manufacturing field; their use in the agricultural sector so far is rare, but not unheard of.
The CROPS project is not the only organization trying to advance the use of robotics in this sector. A startup in Boston called Harvest Automation also is working to design robots that can work alongside humans in agricultural scenarios. And a Japanese research team has created a robot that can identify and pick strawberries, showing that there is existing technology to achieve at least part of what the CROPS team aims for.
Technology also exists already for some of the robot’s simpler goals, such as picking and grasping the fruit. Cornell University engineers have invented a robot gripper hand, as well as an extension of that technology that can pick up oddly-shaped objects. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA also have active robotics programs that are working on autonomous gripping and manual manipulation technology. And even more sophisticated dexterous technology for robotic wrists also exists.
Mr. Sherman, I agree completely with your comments. Robotic systems are fascinating but I do think application here would be very counterproductive for the reasons you have mentioned. It seems to be a miss-application of the technology. I can understand, to some extent, if hazerdous materials represented a great concern but do they? I know the project has not progressed far enough to "guestimate" a return on investment but it seems that would be considerable. I also feel that estimate, if including down time for repairs and maintenance, would be excessive. As you mention, there are some jobs people do much better than robotic systems and, I feel, this is one.
Thanks for your input TJ. Based on your description, that means a whole lot of work figuring designs that can stand up to condensation and have some sort of ruggedized aspect to withstand other weather conditions. Put that together with the accuracy requirement, and you have one tough development and design challenge.
notarboca, You bring up an interesting point about the hazardous conditions on earth and how these agricultural robotics can be used as experimental testbeds for deep space exploration of distant planet's terrains. The Mars Rover Curiousity could have been a prime candidate for such testing on earth.
@mrdon,beth-- you're absolutely right. The agricultural sector is rife with hazardous conditions: petro-chemical, pesticides, dust, and varied ranges of temperature and precipitation. No wonder DARPA and NASA have an interest. These Earthbound robotics experiments may serve as an incubator for future Mars and deep space missions.
I agree. Enviromental conditions can be quite harsh on both electronics and mechanics. One of the biggest challenges I see with the project is the robot's ability to survive enviromental and temperature changes. Automobiles is another good example of environmental obstacles the electronics and mechanics must overcome. I wish them well on their endeavors.
Growing up on a vegetable farm, I would have loved to have this robot. Lol. The farm I grow up on was small compared to the full-time/professional farmers, as farming wasn't my Dad's profession but his love for farming.
Harvesting is just one part of the growing process. I'm wondering if many farmers would find the robots feasible.
With manufacturing robots, you can plan your environment and allow for errors. With (i.e. fruit harvesting) it is totally unpredictable and has no room for errors - the mother of all challenges - Good Luck!
There are lots of people in the world who would gladly not only pick such "difficult" crops but tend them as well. They work cheaply, and are more skilful and more versatile than any robot can ever be. In a rational economy, if humans can do a job cheaper and better than a robot, humans would be hired to do it. Unfortunately in the US today, immigrant labor is a hot-button political issue, and it's become a huge burden to our agricultural industry. Polilticians and their constiuents insist that immigrant farm laborers are "stealing American jobs", and yet there are virtually no Americans who will do that sort of work for any price.
It would be a great irony if this political delusion drove us to build complicated, expensive, and unreliable robots to do a job that Mexicans or other foreigners could do much better and much more cheaply. As for the "sustainability" claim, what is more renewable and sustainable than human labor? There's also a bit of a social justice issue entangled with farm labor in that the laborers are usually from poor parts of the world and the money they send home from their jobs in rich countries helps equalize wealth worldwide.
A few countries have a problem with manual labor costing too much, whereas most countries have a problem with too many laborers and not enough work for them to do. Although designing robots is great fun, it makes more sense to let the people who need jobs go to the places where there labor is needed and do the work, than build robots to do that work, and leave the unemployed poor unemployed and poor.
Beth, you've nailed the difficult part exactly - the environment in which the picker robots will work. Add in moisture and colder temperatures and you will see condensation inside the electrical enclosures.
I've seen basic autmation equipment for packaging corn cobs after a season of use. The machinery looks like it's seen 20 years of hard use, not just one season.
Making the robot pick accurately is only one aspect of the whole problem.
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