Harvesting fruit at its perfect point of ripeness is essential for subtropical farmers. To optimize this process and the production's productivity, researchers have carried out an experiment in one of Trops' experimental farms within the framework of the Pilot 5G Andalusia initiative. The experiment was successfully tested on mangoes.
"They developed a robot that identifies the ripening point of the fruit and activates a mechanical arm to collect the fruits that are already ready for sale," stated Rafael Alcaide, territorial director of Vodafone in Andalusia.
The robot takes a picture of the mango and sends it to the cloud, where artificial intelligence contrasts its color and tonality with more than 47,000 images to analyze in real-time if it's in its ripening point and can be harvested. "The speed with which the system acts is only possible with a 5G network that allows the machine to respond immediately and with total precision."
According to Jesus Regodon, director of R+D+i at Trops, the results of this experience will influence various aspects of the business in the short, medium, and long term. "These fruits are currently harvested manually. We have taken the first step for the future mechanization of these crops but we are still in a very embryonic phase," he said.
"The internal intelligence of the robot can already be scaled from that system. Placing it on drones would allow us to gauge the campaign in real-time and analyze the ripeness of the mangoes in each of the farms. This would help the sector to better plan the campaign and optimize the management of the rest of the links in the chain, from reception at the plant to logistics and shipping to customers," he stressed. This improves the sales process and quality while minimizing waste due to excess stock. The next step would be to take this same application to avocados.
"The agricultural sector is experiencing an intense digital transformation process in all its processes and the future is marked by technological advances such as these applications," Regodon stated. "Not only through robots, but with images from drones, humidity sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing ... Over time, it will become a source of undoubted competitive advantage."
This project is part of the 5G Andalusia Pilot initiative, promoted by Red.es, developed by Vodafone and Huawei. To learn more about it, click here.
Source: sevilla.abc.es
