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Seems to make sense with something like tomatoes, where you can destroy the plant during harvest like that. But looking at the apple one, I'm not sure if it's a

Seems to make sense with something like tomatoes, where you can destroy the plant during harvest like that. But looking at the apple one, I'm not sure if it's as fast as a human being, and if it would be cheaper than human labor.

jobu 10y ago
Most tree-grown fruits fall off the tree easily when ripe, so something like this cherry harvester seems like it would be a lot more efficient - https://youtu.be/YKu6xwJptkc?t=2m4s https://youtu.be/YKu6xwJptkc?t=2m4s
- shostack 10y ago
  Are most tree-grown fruits actually harvested when ripe? I seem to recall reading something a while back about how most fruit is picked before it is ripe, and picking is timed such that it ripens by the time it gets transported to the warehouse, grocery store, purchased, etc.
  - rjsw 10y ago
    The tree-grown fruit that is sold in the UK has been harvested before it is ripe, it is still too hard to eat when you throw it away.
Animats 10y ago
The apple picker is a prototype, from Abundant Robotics, an SRI spinoff. It suffers from being a Silicon Valley R&D effort - the computer technology is cool, and the mechanical parts are too flimsy. Somebody needs to get those guys some hardass mechanical designers from John Deere or Caterpillar or Ponsse who know how to make machinery work reliably in the field. I think they're still at the angel investor stage. They'll need another funding round soon, and if they're lucky, their funder will know who to put in there to get the thing out of R&D and into production.
- candiodari 10y ago
  > some hardass mechanical designers from John Deere or Caterpillar or Ponsse Since all those companies are doing really badly, there should be plenty of those to go around.
mercer 10y ago
A big reason why a robot might not outperform a human is that it's just cheaper to hire humans. And that strikes me as an excellent incentive to make sure humans are paid more and within a legal framework; it increases the rate of technological development. And while the resulting unemployment is a very serious issue, I'm inclined to think that the benefits outweigh the cost. (That said, I very aware of the fact that this is easy for me to say)

jobu 10y ago

Most tree-grown fruits fall off the tree easily when ripe, so something like this cherry harvester seems like it would be a lot more efficient - https://youtu.be/YKu6xwJptkc?t=2m4s https://youtu.be/YKu6xwJptkc?t=2m4s

shostack 10y ago
Are most tree-grown fruits actually harvested when ripe? I seem to recall reading something a while back about how most fruit is picked before it is ripe, and picking is timed such that it ripens by the time it gets transported to the warehouse, grocery store, purchased, etc.
- rjsw 10y ago
  The tree-grown fruit that is sold in the UK has been harvested before it is ripe, it is still too hard to eat when you throw it away.

Animats 10y ago

The apple picker is a prototype, from Abundant Robotics, an SRI spinoff. It suffers from being a Silicon Valley R&D effort - the computer technology is cool, and the mechanical parts are too flimsy. Somebody needs to get those guys some hardass mechanical designers from John Deere or Caterpillar or Ponsse who know how to make machinery work reliably in the field. I think they're still at the angel investor stage. They'll need another funding round soon, and if they're lucky, their funder will know who to put in there to get the thing out of R&D and into production.

candiodari 10y ago
> some hardass mechanical designers from John Deere or Caterpillar or Ponsse Since all those companies are doing really badly, there should be plenty of those to go around.

mercer 10y ago

A big reason why a robot might not outperform a human is that it's just cheaper to hire humans. And that strikes me as an excellent incentive to make sure humans are paid more and within a legal framework; it increases the rate of technological development. And while the resulting unemployment is a very serious issue, I'm inclined to think that the benefits outweigh the cost. (That said, I very aware of the fact that this is easy for me to say)