 |
Strawberry Picking Robot In Japan
Japan's people are aging; old farmers are finding it difficult to find young people to work the fields. Bring on the robots!
(Robot strawberry picker from Japan)
This handy robot performs a particularly time-consuming and tedious (read "labor-intensive") chore; the monitoring and picking of strawberries.
In Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, venture firm Romobility Youto is working on its strawberry-picking robot; the robot's color-sensitive camera checks on ripeness before plucking.
The following video shows you how it works.
(Video of strawberry-picking robot)
Science fiction writers (and by extension, their readers) are ahead of the curve once again. In his 1955 short story War Veteran, Philip K. Dick refers to robot gardeners:
David Unger sat moodily on his park bench...To his right a robot gardener worked over the same patch of grass again and again, its metallic eye-lenses intently fastened on the wizened, hunched-over figure of the old man.
(Read more about Philip K. Dick's robot gardener)
Readers might also recall the field-minder from Brian Aldiss' Who can replace a man? (1963) and the robot gardening crab from Neuromancer (1984)
If you're interested, take a look at some of these other robotic aids to agriculture:
- HortiBot - Autonomous Weed 'n Feed AgBot
HortiBot can recognize 25 different kinds of weeds, eliminating it with its attachments. - Robotic Tomato Harvester Ready For Space
The tomato harvester robot is able to locate and pick ripe tomatoes; the robot's "eye" scans the tomato plant and determines the number and position of ripe fruit. - AgBots: Agricultural Robots Take The Field
Agriculture has been slow to adopt to robotic technology; however, some new developments are on the horizon.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 4/25/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion (Back On) ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Agriculture ")
Lettuce-Bot Weed-Killing Robot Funded
A new alternative to labor-intensive farming techniques.
Detroit's Urban Agriculture Ordinance
'The survivors tore up the metal plating and sold it... for seed and cattle.'-Isaac Asimov, 1951.
Prospero, Robotic Farmer
Fascinating new approach to the idea of mechanized agriculture.
Robotic Lettuce Farm Has Green Thumb
Automated farms take most of the back-breaking work out of growing lettuce.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
Sweat Be Gone! Non-Wetting Fabric
'The skin-contact layer is porous.'
German Firm Seeks To Recruit Autistics
Not a deficit, but a strength.
NASA Supports Pizza Printer
Is it extra with printed pepperoni?
Could Ground-Based Lasers De-Orbit Space Junk?
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
