
What this apple-picking robot means for the future of farm workers - Mathnerd314
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/apple-picking-robot-means-future-farm-workers/
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mythrwy
Changing the shape of fruit bearing crops may be one of the keys to automated
"intelligent" harvesting.

For example, modern olive culture. Regular olives come from a full size tree,
people used to (and maybe still do) beat the trees with sticks to get the
olives off. But now many olives are grown in low rows that a machine can
straddle.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0glTpuK8SY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0glTpuK8SY)

Guessing similar or else some type of espalier is the future of stone fruit
culture.

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Animats
It's a real prototype, but not ready for prime time.[1] Too much duct tape.
Too slow. Not enough reach. Vision system isn't dynamic enough; it looks,
targets, and then grabs, rather than looking while grabbing. Getting close,
though. A few more years.

[1] [http://www.goodfruit.com/growers-get-peek-at-automatic-
picki...](http://www.goodfruit.com/growers-get-peek-at-automatic-picking-
machine-video/)

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pier25
True, but it's just a matter of time.

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toomuchtodo
Quite a difference between it being here in 5 years vs 25 years.

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pier25
I doubt it's going to take that long. Time will tell.

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linux2647
_“It’s no secret we’re facing a serious labor shortage in agriculture so
seeing companies devote time and funding to new technology is welcomed.”_

I didn't realize there was a labor shortage. The way people talk (at least in
the northwestern United States)—and our current president—it sounded like
there were plenty of people doing this kind of work, many of which from
Mexico.

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bikezen
When states have cracked down on migrant workers, entire farms have had to
watch their crops rot because they couldn't find people to harvest them.

Hell trumps own hotels are still applying for immigrant visas to staff them.

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anotherbrownguy
Why do Trump-haters pretend to not know the difference between legal and
illegal immigration?

Is there a labor shortage that can be filled by bringing in immigrant workers?
Then push for new laws that makes bringing in foreign workers easy like many
rich middle eastern countries and many European countries have done.

Why do you want people to break the laws instead? How is it better in any way?

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Mathnerd314
Previous discussion of automated farming:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821729](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821729)

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ahugebeach
Wow, with a little more work this will be revolutionary.

Hopefully lower prices for consumers, but man will this put alot of immigrants
out of jobs.

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CryptoPunk
Lower consumer prices == more consumer spending on new product classes which
creates new jobs and/or fewer labour hours needed per person to meet a
standard of living they consider sufficient.

Automation is never a bad thing from a macroeconomic standpoint.

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Mathnerd314
Yeah, the people who would be immigrants will probably stay in Mexico and make
Carrier air conditioners...

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mc32
Farm work, like other work, will get automated and people will be automated
out of a job. I am unsure the pickers will be able to go to school to become
higher value add workers. It's like the cotton picker, or the wheat reaper.
Not ever coming back.

As the population ages and farmers' children seek out other non farm
industries (US, Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, etc. for example) this
becomes a necessity.

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deepnotderp
Needs more compute power to be faster.

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ars
I'll be happy to get apples without fingernail dents in them.

