this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Hey look, the Chobani commercial apple-picking drones are closer to being a real thing ^_^ (twitter.com)
submitted 1 year ago by sam_uk@lemmy.world to c/solarpunk
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“AI powered tethered drones picking apples 🤯

These drones use AI image recognition models to determine ripeness and sugar levels in the apples.

Then they use a little arm to pick them.

AI & robotics will completely revolutionize the agriculture industry.”

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[–] LibertyLizard 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Sounds interesting but is there somewhere aside from that garbage website I can read about this?

[–] sam_uk@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://spectrum.ieee.org/video-friday

I'll try not to post links to the birdsite again.

[–] LibertyLizard 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thanks! I’m actually pretty excited about this technology although as with any automation it will come with challenges to ensure that wealth is distributed fairly.

Putting those aside for now, the technology is limited today but it seems as though it may soon be able to perform tasks human workers cannot. I’m hoping that eventually smaller, more mobile robots may be able to maintain and harvest dense, diverse agricultural systems that are too labor intensive to compete against today’s modern farms.

[–] sam_uk 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you know this project? https://www.twistedfields.com/copy-of-research

It's the most solarpunk of the ag robots I know of.

[–] LibertyLizard 2 points 1 year ago

Cool stuff. I worked on a farm that had a converted solar tractor at one point.

But what I’m envisioning is more like Boston dynamics style robotics in a small package that can climb and/or fly. This will allow harvesting taller tree crops in a way that is essentially impossible today. But it may be a while before that technology is cheap and accessible enough for small-scale actors to develop these types of tools. The powers that be won’t pursue something that radical.