A newly-developed robotic rover could become the workhorse of New Zealand's fruit industry. It has been developed to help pick some of the more than 3 billion kiwifruit harvested in New Zealand each year.
Labour shortages and arrival of new varieties have made getting the fruit off the vine at the right time a huge challenge for growers.
Now a team of scientists and engineers working with Waikato and Auckland universities have developed a new robotic picking machine, designed to move along beneath the vines, gently taking the fruit as it goes.
An array of cameras are at the heart of the machine, which uses a series of learning algorithms to map the canopy above in three dimensions.
Trials have shown if it is calibrated correctly it can be more gentle than human pickers.
"The robot was more consistent in its handling and also gentler," says Alistair Scarfe, the CTO of Robotics Plus, the company behind the machine.
He says robotic's handling of the fruit gives it an important advantage as it can result in consistently higher quality of fruit, which fetch higher prices at market.
source: nzherald.co.nz
