According to Japanese robotics company Agrist, the country has a shortage of farmers and yields are lower than they would otherwise be. But the company offers a partial solution to this problem in the form of a pepper picking robot.
This bot, simply known as L, won an innovation award at CES.
Instead of rolling on wheels or walking on its feet, the robot moves between rows of paprika along a thick horizontal gondola-like overhead wire. As he inspects his crops daily, he uses multiple types of cameras and his proprietary AI-based computer vision algorithm to find ripe peppers in the leaves.
agronomist
Upon identifying such a pepper, L goes inside with one arm and uses a special picking tool to grab the pepper and slice the stem before dropping it into a storage compartment onboard. To keep that compartment from filling up, the robot periodically stops over another basket and slides open the bottom of the compartment.
Reportedly, L can work continuously for up to 12 hours a day, as long as the sun is shining. The robot is powered by two batteries, which can be replaced with charged batteries as soon as they start to run low.
Using this technology, pepper farmers should be able to increase yields by about 20%, according to Agrist. The company currently offers a program for farmers to pay about 1.5 million yen (about US$11,244) to install one of his robots on their farm, after which the company will pay him 10% of the total sales of their produce. You can get Agrist also plans to set up its own farm, designed specifically with L in mind.
You can see the robot picking peppers in all its glory in the video below.
2022 Green pepper automatic harvesting robot “L” product introduction video_Japanese
Source: Aglist
