
An autonomous robot to pollinate bramble plants - dnetesn
https://techxplore.com/news/2018-09-bramblebee-autonomous-robot-pollinate-bramble.html
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Lunatic666
While it's an impressive piece of technology, I think it's the wrong way to
approach this problem. Of course big scale agriculture needs to spray
glyphosate and the like, but a technology to minimize the usage combined with
a more customized method of application should be considered, too. Hops
farmers in Germany e.g. only apply insecticides to the roots of a plant to
protect them from being eaten up. If the farmers add some bee hives to the
mix, it might help to recover the bee population, which is better than giving
up on bees and replace them.

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mc32
For some plants, bees and other insects are ineffective --they don't pollinate
all flowers (Vanilla comes to mind) but there are others like some Pears and
others. So, if this tech is more effective, it's a win because harvest is
increased.

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mc32
I recall reading about hand-driven pollination in China. This would definitely
be a step up. Also commercially in Japan[1]

Another sector which might benefit from a different kknd of robot would be
robots able nimbly manoeuver forests in order to thin them. One scout/cutter,
one loader/transport to more accessible areas.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgpYTq7cG0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljgpYTq7cG0)

