February 2019 - 6

AUTOMATION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
" What we've built are self-contained,
self-propelled systems that drive down
orchard rows, recognize fruit, and as they
recognize fruit, they decide if it's ripe. And
then if it's ripe, robotics is used to pick the
fruit, and robotics uses vacuums to pick
the fruit off the tree. Then we carry that
fruit to the orchard bins, and fill the bins. "
A video of Abundant's picker in action
turned heads a
few years ago, but
Steere said the
footage is now
outdated.
" There aren't
DAN STEERE
really any videos
out there of our
recent systems, "
Steere said.
" There's some
video on the Internet of some prototypes
we did a couple of years ago, but things
have progressed since then. "
He said Abundant is getting close to
a commercial release but hasn't shared a
timing schedule for that. Abundant and its
parent company, SRI International, have
been working on the machine for about
five years, Steere said. Testing continued
through the 2018 harvest.
Steere said Abundant's machine
would be able to function in any
modern tall spindle, vertical or
angled orchard, with " a full range of
In this photo, the Cyclone from Automated Ag DBR appears ready to square off with other platform harvesters from Automated Ag.
Photo: Automated Ag
commercial varieties. " He hopes the
device can be priced for all growers.
" This type of automation will be
accessible to growers across the industry, "
he said. " It won't have to just be a huge
operation to work with the automation
we're bringing to market. "
Some growers remain skeptical.
" It's up to us to prove to them that
we'll do what they need more effectively, "
Steere said. " I think we'll be in a good
position to be able to do that. "
Destination: Innovation
New capabilities keep cropping up.
Renfu Lu, a USDA-ARS research leader
housed at Michigan State University's East
Lansing campus, has been working on a
harvest-assist machine, and spoke about
his research at the recent Great Lakes Fruit,
Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. A unique feature of his
project is the ability to do in-field sorting
of apples at a high rate of speed.
" We want to be able to handle nine
apples per second, " he said during his
presentation.
New technologies also make handling
apples easier.
" With new soft, robotic technology,
there now is a capability to be able to
grip something that's more delicate
without destroying it, " said Bob Doyle,
vice president of the Robotic Industries
Association.
The advent of automation seems to
have only just begun.
" What we've seen - the struggle with
American
farmers to
find enough
workers to pick
a ripe product
in the field - the
opportunity is
great for these
technologies, "
Doyle said. " And
as they improve
and the return
on investment
gets better, I think we'll see more and more
farmers and processors integrating robots
and other automation applications. " FGN
BOB DOYLE
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February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2019