Friday, March 29, 2024

Robots set to pick kiwifruit

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A little-known business park between lush kiwifruit vines in Western Bay of Plenty is proving a hub for technology to change how those vines are harvested and managed in the future.
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Dr Alistair Scarfe and his colleagues at Robotics Plus are well down the track developing a mechanical kiwifruit picker that rather than putting hundreds of humans out of work was more likely to help boost skill levels and deliver a more timely harvest of high-quality fruit.

After five years’ development Scarfe was optimistic the project would go commercial in two years.

That would coincide well with an expected massive boost in SunGold fruit volumes likely to match Green’s 80 million trays within five years.

“The challenges for the sector are getting that big volume of crop off in time, to meet strict quality parameters and also early enough to earn premiums that a late harvested crop does not.

“There is also going to be a greater challenge there with Green and Gold harvest periods starting to overlap, increasing the harvest volume load even more.”

A looming labour shortage for the primary sector came despite a lift in the number of workers capable of being employed under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme to 10,500 from 9500 in 2016.

Last year a Ministry for Primary Industries report estimated the booming horticulture sector needed nearly 8000 more skilled workers by 2025 to cope with predicted rises in production.

Primary ITO general manager Alister Shennan said then that changing horticultural demands required more skilled workers over and beyond seasonal workers.

Scarfe’s company also had work under way on robotic apple packers for an industry that had grown 10% a year in the past five years.

He described the robotic picker as a result of a meeting of minds between himself and fellow Robotics Plus owner Steve Saunders.

Saunders had already established a sound reputation in the industry with 30 years’ experience in orchard management with GroPlus and more recently as an angel investor.

Four years ago Scarfe completed his PhD on autonomous kiwifruit robotics and his work matched Saunders’ desire to develop more sustainable practices in the industry, not only in growing but from a human resource and management perspective.

Blandly labelled the “autonomous platform” at this stage of development, the technology was based on a ground-up design ultimately aiming to have a multipurpose application capable of switching between spraying, pollination, pruning and harvesting work.

“The key focus at this stage though, where industry sees the most immediate gains, is in using it for harvesting. The other applications will come along over time,” Scarfe said.

Its ground-up design distinguished it from the wave of standard tractors converted to driverless vehicles.

A hybrid petrol-electric power system drove the machine while GPS, 3D camera technology and sensors helped it determine where it was and its route of travel.

Latest camera detectors identified ripe fruit that was delicately plucked by servo driven arms, putting it in the integrated bin.

The machine was ultimately capable of performing the work of four pickers and could operate day and night, having to stop harvesting only when dew levels were risky.

“Much of the technology has been there but we have converted it to what we need.

“The recent surge in development around driverless vehicles has meant sensors have become better and cheaper while open source software makes the components easier to adapt to our particular application.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the design held only a few patents but chief operating officer Dr Bram Smith said much of the “smarts” for the company lay in the small army of robotics and mechatronic graduates the company recruited from Auckland and Waikato universities.

The university involvement was augmented with funding to those institutions from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, with funding from Saunders, along with Zespri.

Scarfe said some of the project’s challenges included getting the machine capable of recognising ripe fruit across all light conditions, with bursts of sunlight or darkness changing the image of a ripe fruit.

“It also has to be capable of handling that 1% of exceptions, like the branch that drops down in front of it unexpectedly. It is no good requiring perfect conditions for it to operate successfully.”

And it was seeing it operate in standard orchard conditions that turned orchardists on to the idea of a robotic harvester, rather than dismiss it as the stuff of dreams.

“Rather than be locked up in a workshop building it, we have sought input from growers on what they need, how they see it working for them – once they saw a video of it operating they could conceptualise it and come up with input and advice.”

The developers had also worked to a strong commercial brief to keep the machine viable with the industry.

“Plenty of machines are developed that have had a heap of money thrown at them but we took a view from the start on how much such a machine should cost and worked back from there.”

He expected the robots would be leased out.

Ultimately, by integrating with drones and sensing technology the machine would be able to pinpoint specific parts of an orchard to harvest, based on optimal harvest time, rather than simply taking a whole-block harvest approach.

And Scarfe was confident the machine would help meet the industry’s need for more skilled staff, rather than reduce opportunities.

“The robot will harvest 80% of the crop, dealing with the high volume, stressful fruit load, with sweeper crews coming through to pick whatever other fruit has been missed.

“It also means there is a place for upskilling people capable of running this equipment and diverting them away from the tough seasonal work to develop more skills around orchard management.”

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