I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was standard fare for a young teen. Even then, in the 1970s, there was a shortage of coconut harvesters. The ones who showed up to harvest coconuts were quite poor, thin with ribs showing, and were well known through the village for this skill. It was quite a dangerous task - due to rains some of the trunks could be quite slippery. There were snakes in many of these trees! As a kid I wanted to learn, so they tied a rope around my waist to get me to clamber up the coconut tree. I wasn't able to - you get calluses on your palms & feet & it cuts through the skin as well. If you stick a tall ladder next to the tree, and climb to the topmost rung, you can tie an iron sickle to a rod & using the sickle, chop off the coconuts - but you have to stay clear of the falling coconuts! So a robot harvester of this sort is quite welcome. Its a pretty ingenious device.
Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
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Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#22I grew up in a remote village in south India. We had over two dozen coconut trees in our yard. I made a long loop in the mud that went around all these trees. I'd pull water out of the well using a rope & pulley & pour it down the loop. The water would wind its way until it reached all the two dozen trees. About an hour of this water pulling & the loop would stay wet for a few hours. This sort of manual work was stan…
One time as a tourist I stayed at a guest house in the Kerala backwaters. My host had several coconut trees and gave me a shot at climbing one. There was this contraption I harnessed to myself with a strap around the tree and I made it up a fair bit before realizing that there was no way in hell I was going to go any further, let alone perform any meaningful act of dexterity at the top of the tree. Everybody had a good laugh.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#23There recently was a huge controversy in Thailand about using monkey labor for coconut harvesting which resulted in many shops and even countries considering banning thai coconut milk. [1]
Since then I've been thinking: why is it so difficult to harvest coconuts? Surely a pair of long clipper or some sort of stick-like device ought to do it? I've popped a few coconuts myself of trees, it's not that complicated, right?
> Coconut trees that are harvested for milk tend to be taller than 15m, so monkeys are often used instead. [1]
So 15 meters is a lot of stick though, is it really not doable? Ladder and a stick? Surely there's a simple way to reach it?
The only answer I manage to find is that coconut farmers generally can't afford _any expensive devices_ thats why they use monkeys or climb the trees or rig up these cheap dangerous devices. So reading the news about a bloody robot, the most expensive and complicated solution that can be applied to this scenario, just makes me laugh really.
1 - https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1948652/slave-m...
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crane would be way more complex and something like 50x more expensive.
That’s where the innovation comes up, use materials and structure to bring down the costs. Even if initially it costs higher, it can pay back by it’s multi-use, maintenance, energy efficiency by using mechanical energy applied by human muscle with creative use of hydraulics and mechanical designs. Usually multi-purpose robots cost way higher and requires more maintenance and costs. Given the average labour costs in I…
Along those lines, seems you could design a far simpler, non-electric frame that could be rolled up a trunk with a mechanical cable/waldo cutter for the coconuts.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#25There recently was a huge controversy in Thailand about using monkey labor for coconut harvesting which resulted in many shops and even countries considering banning thai coconut milk. [1] Since then I've been thinking: why is it so difficult to harvest coconuts? Surely a pair of long clipper or some sort of stick-like device ought to do it? I've popped a few coconuts myself of trees, it's not that complicated, right…
Those who have coconut farms would afford and appreciate this device, though. It’ll help them harvest coconuts on time. Also, being a robot created in India, the price outs highly likely to be much lower priced and affordable compared to something invented and made in the US or Germany, for example.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#26There recently was a huge controversy in Thailand about using monkey labor for coconut harvesting which resulted in many shops and even countries considering banning thai coconut milk. [1] Since then I've been thinking: why is it so difficult to harvest coconuts? Surely a pair of long clipper or some sort of stick-like device ought to do it? I've popped a few coconuts myself of trees, it's not that complicated, right…
Not all coconut trees are the same. And also harvesting coconuts are dangerous job. The established coconut farms (and backyard trees) are very tall, combining with too many heavy fruits, it's an incident waiting to happen both for harvester and people on the ground. So the safer way to harvest coconut is to climb to the top, tie a rope, saw the fruit branch and rappel. I can't say for Thai's method, though you can't just use a long stick and cut the fruits.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#27Reminds me of a similar machine I saw for pruning tree branches:
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#28This is good as a learning exercise and may be result in something useful in future. So for sake of learning and advancement good. As far as claims to replace coconut harvesters, a bit of a stretch to probably attract funding with marketing. Why not built a mechanical crane with a platform to help the worker to do better job with safety at heights to harvest a coconut and than apply the same for multiple tasks like r…
Crane would be way more complex and something like 50x more expensive.
Why not just get a cherry picker truck? Those already exist, can be purchased used and drive around from one tree to the next.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#29> As the population increasingly moves towards tech jobs, there's now a shortage of coconut harvesters in India. This seems a very bold claim. I can believe that there is a shortage of people willing to do this job, but it is very hard to believe that the reason is the tech jobs. Even in the USA IT workers represent less than 5% of all jobs. Otherwise interesting how automation is increasing around the world.
People may not be employed in that industry but many seek employment in it. Even when it pays much less than what would be considered reasonable, it’s more than what other professions pay. But yes it’s a dubious claim that IT is actually absorbing all that labor, more likely that IT industry has created an economic boom that has created non IT jobs in cities and not many younger Indians find the idea of being a coconut picker an attractive career.
This applies to other professions as well: education naturally makes families aware that they don’t need to continue in menial professions in villages so they send their kids to towns or cities.
Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts
#30I enjoy the conversation here.
So many people are assuming there is true thought in OPEX, CAPEX, and employer rights and employer safety in these operations. As others mentioned, Thailand used Monkeys.
There is so much of a disconnect between this crowd and the farmers and the people this robot will actually replace.
What is the average annual income of a farm hand in Thailand, Philippines, or any country that has coconut farms with farm hands?
How about preventative maintenance? Tariff, taxes and VAT (yeah they're all the same thing.)
"Additionally, while human coconut harvesters were found to work faster, Amaran could work for longer, potentially making up the difference."
It's controlled via a human, so, not really "work" longer, and then to scale up, how many robots do you really need vs available farm hands from the local province?
I don't see it succeeding or replacing farm hands for the reasons above.