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Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

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Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#61

I 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 co…

I don't think you should interpret the article as saying they have solved automated coconut harvesting. This is a prototype which could eventually be integrated with other components to form a system which, at some point in the future, could replace manual labor. Of course there are many situations where automation may never make sense. Then again, an automated solution may enable more growing scenarios to be profita…

The ironic part is, literally, it will not bear fruit for decades.

"On fertile soil, a tall coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year, but more often yields less than 30. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, taking 15 to 20 years to reach peak production."

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#62
post #21

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 stan…

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about.

Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about. Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

Please elaborate (If you can, I suppose - this is kind of blowing my mind).

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even then, in the 1970s, there was a shortage of coconut harvesters. What's the problem with letting the coconuts fall off naturally? Danger?

Coconuts fall off when they dry. If you want coconut water and the rather tasty wet flesh, you need to go up there and bring them down.

I had a fresh coconut once on vacation it was amazing. nothing like any of the other coconut I've ever had before.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#67
post #21

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 stan…

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

You increase the price and more competition turns up and you end up climbing less trees. So you end up poor again.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about. Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

Also, remind me.. the pricing of coconuts are low as well right? so the labor costs needs to be capped for profitability. But overall it's still odd..

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#69
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about. Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

Please elaborate (If you can, I suppose - this is kind of blowing my mind).

I am not surprised it blows your mind.

Pricing in the Western systems is all about finding out how high you can price so fewer people pay a lot more which offsets running a larger scale business to serve more customers at lower price points. So these systems have accepted that not everything is for everybody, and do not even make an effort to get things to people. US healthcare is a good example here.

Countries with much large populations can not run that way, not everything at least. We are still learning to balance, which is why I want to adopt a region-based pricing for anything I build. Since customers from Western nations get a kick by paying more, I say, let them. Get and money and subsidize for the rest.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, if there was shortage of coconut harvesters, why were they poor? Can't they demand more money for the task?

Most Indians, me including and people I know of, do not understand the concepts of pricing that Western countries talk about. Even now, in 2020, this comes up frequently in product pricing when I talk to founders in India who haven't seen the Western notion of pricing first hand.

Please elaborate! This sounds very interesting.

Do you mean that there is some tradition based price and it's accepted as "unchanging", or something else?

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