Robot harvests fruits in a greenhouse
The robot, made by a research team at the University of Technology (Ha Noi National University), is capable of recognizing certain types of fruits and their ripeness for accurate harvesting.
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Fruit harvesting robot was successfully tested at Hachi Company, Dong Anh. Photo: VNU
As agriculture meets certain standards in terms of infrastructure and farm managers are more interested in automation, robots will become a popular choice to help farms improve productivity and reduce costs and deal with human resource concerns.
This robot is capable of recognizing fruits and vegetables, such as peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and etc. depending on the variety of sizes, shapes and colors. They also sense the ripeness of fruits to determine which fruit to harvest, even in a messy and complicated garden. It also learns to "treat" plants gently to avoid accidentally uprooting an entire plant. The robot's clamping arm can clamp deep into the vines to overripe without affecting the surrounding green berries.
The research team said that because of all components are designed and manufactured in the country, the cost of the robot is only about 30% of the imported type. The robot control software is programmed and mastered by Vietnamese engineers, independent of foreign technology.
These results were just accepted by the University of Technology on January 10. Prof. Dr. Le Huy Ham, Dean of the Faculty of High-Tech Agriculture, University of Technology, said that the product of Assoc. Pham Manh Thang has applied a pioneering approach and is the embryo to initially apply to the collection system in net houses and greenhouses in Vietnam.
The team says this technology is in the process of patenting and will continue to be perfected. The group will also work with business partners with a developed high-tech agriculture, such as South Korea to expand the robot's capabilities and operating space.