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Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

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Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#81

Post by kortilla »

brainless wrote: post #69
recuter wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The west has prices for lower income groups as well via coupons and other distribution channels hidden away or made inconvenient for higher paying customers. Part of pricing is capturing as much of the demand curve as you reasonably can.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#82

Post by zerr »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: 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?

I'd think, as with any other sector - there was a shortage of cheap labour.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#83

Post by hesarenu »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: 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?

They do demand more. My parents house has 3 trees. The price per tree has increased. Its difficult to get people and if we get someone they usually agree to their price. This in city though not village. Its still a dangerous job. One of the guys who used to come to our house broke his ribs falling from tree.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#84

Post by slowmotiony »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #2

I'd doubt this will end the exploitation of the slave monkeys that are forced to pick coconuts. They're likely cheaper than a robot. For this reason, I don't buy coconut products from Thailand. https://investigations.peta.org/monkeys-abused-coconut-milk/

Monkeys being made to scale up trees? How inhumane. Better have some poor guy do it instead.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#85

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

daggerdrone wrote: post #58
dxbydt wrote: 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?

If you turn up thin with ribs showing I'd hazard a guess that puts you at a significant disadvantage in any negotiations.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#86

Post by blueblisters »

Looks like this was an undergraduate learning project rather than a practical solution to harvesting coconuts.

It reminds me of ABU Robocon, where undergraduates representing different countries compete to build the fastest robot using off-the-shelf parts that can solve an abstract problem. The point wasn't to fix a real-world issue but to serve as a learning tool, push technological boundaries and hopefully land a job while doing it.

Some cool videos from the last few years:

- 2019 Mongolia v/s Hong Kong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WVDXrlHUsA

- 2018 Vietnam v/s China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kPI_51cLpo

- 2017 Vietnam v/s Malaysia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huzm9mrEZJE

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#87

Post by vinay427 »

ponker wrote: post #80
vinay427 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like you're answering on behalf of a large group of people with differing views that your comment doesn't at all reflect. I, for one, oppose this monkey labor and I would argue I don't have more empathy for "animals than for humans." I try to be equal in many respects and would oppose humans being coerced into doing this as well. It's why I oppose slavery, for instance.

I didn't say you -- I said many people.

Normally I would agree, but you answered a question asking what the problem would be with this approach, and I think it's reasonable to then read "many people" as referring to "those that oppose monkey labor." Maybe you didn't mean that, however, so I'll of course allow for the benefit of the doubt.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#88

Post by wraptile »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #36
wraptile wrote: post #23

There 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…

> There recently was a huge controversy in Thailand about using monkey labor for coconut harvesting Well, I read the article. Why exactly is this supposed to be a problem? By all accounts, it's a good idea that works well.

I don't think this is the right thread to discuss the ethics of animal labor but veganism argues that use of animal labor is unethical and that's where the contraversy originated.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#89

Post by berkes »

iratewizard wrote: post #60
ponker wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people have more empathy for animals than for humans. The idea of a monkey forced/encouraged to climb a tree for a coconut tugs at their heartstrings the way a person does not.

Done right, it's the opposite for me. Those monkeys can live a happy life in the same way as an ox that pulls a tiller.

An ox is forcibly neutered, then forced, often with a torturing device (whips, nose rings etc), to toil in the burning sun for days. Untill his joints give up, and he is killed.

I know I'm excaggerating. But it annoys me to no end that we came to think this is 'a happy life' in any remote sense. An ox, to me, is on the furthest part of the spectrum of forced labor.

I found Harari's Book 'Sapien' very enlightening on the parts about the history of human abuse to animals. Oxen get a honorary mention.

Re: Indian robot climbs trees to harvest coconuts

#90

Post by hooande »

vikrantrathore wrote: post #34
digikata wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes agree with you there are more than one solution, crane was just one thought. This is thinking out of the box and a cornerstone of innovation. My concern with robotics is sometimes it's much easier to use humans and with application of sufficient amount of technology can be much better. In some cases robots are essential where humans are too difficult to operate. So we need both, but in this specific article they…

You would do better to come up with innovative new jobs for humans to do. It's easier to come up with a new service jobs than it is new materials to build cranes with

Humans can always invent new forms of labor. Limited only by imagination and opportunity. We should be automating everything we can while actively creating new categories of employment for every person

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