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Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

news.uark.edu

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Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#41

Post by ghostly_s »

helltone wrote: post #14

Every time I see these headlines, the tech seems to be at least 10 years away from product. - demos done in a lab controlled environment without the crazy things that happen in a real world. - no humans nearby so none of the safety features that would be needed should this thing work alongside/near humans. - no regards for economics, expensive vision models, expensive hardware, no consideration for maintenance and re…

The quote from the researcher is that one "could [hypothetically] design something that is better than the human hand for that one specific task," which gets turned into "some day this specific device could be better" in the prose, which becomes a suggestion that hey, maybe it already is better! in the headline. Everything published by a Uni PR department is a puff piece, frankly I don't know why they're even allowed here.

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#42

Post by 01100011 »

ortusdux wrote: post #15

Having filled my share of blackberry flats, the first part of the picking motion is a ripeness check. You want the berry to be firm with a bit of give, and you want it to pull free from the plant easily. The force feedback sensors mentioned here seems to be for training purposes, but they would probably be better used on the finished grabbers to detect ripeness.

Yeah but are there other, sensor based approaches that would also work? Ripe berries are softer, so sonic/ultrasonic waves would propagate differently. Is there a wavelength of light which behaves differently? Can shaking the branch and observing the motion of the berry provide a clue?

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#43

Post by 01100011 »

helltone wrote: post #14

Every time I see these headlines, the tech seems to be at least 10 years away from product. - demos done in a lab controlled environment without the crazy things that happen in a real world. - no humans nearby so none of the safety features that would be needed should this thing work alongside/near humans. - no regards for economics, expensive vision models, expensive hardware, no consideration for maintenance and re…

Well the economics of farm labor seem to be changing dramatically now, so maybe formerly expensive methods become profitable?

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#46

Post by andylynch »

elcritch wrote: post #38
m463 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ask "could you pressure-wash this thing"? Is that a necessary requirement? I mean, that would probably damage current harvesters, who are human people. I mean, there are lots of parts of cars where pressure washing would probably force fluid into the bearings. Might that not apply to hydraulic, pneumatic or electronic systems too? (I do get what you're saying though)

Yes, powerwashing would be wanted. That's an IP69K, not too hard to hit with some basic mechanical protections. Unless you need delicate sensors which need direct contact to samples to work. Maybe it's not a complete necessity, but generally it's gonna be mixed in with big farm equipment that is power washed. The more you have to "coddle" the equipment the less cost effective it'll be for farmers. Farm workers genera…

Used to work on a farm, and yes we did do this.

Also, our wash down hoses were basically power washers, but like 10x the volume.

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#47

Post by dmoy »

blibble wrote: post #32
dmoy wrote: post #22

I would settle for a robot that can kill blackberry bushes. Blackberries cut me so much, every time I go do maintenance on another noxious weed, English ivy which is busy killing all my trees

I think that's called a goat or a pig

I would totally put a goat back there if I was able to. Probably would have to own the goat though because it'd just come back every few months.

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#49

Post by RataNova »

ortusdux wrote: post #15

Having filled my share of blackberry flats, the first part of the picking motion is a ripeness check. You want the berry to be firm with a bit of give, and you want it to pull free from the plant easily. The force feedback sensors mentioned here seems to be for training purposes, but they would probably be better used on the finished grabbers to detect ripeness.

I'm curious if they could combine the force sensors with some kind of micro-movement feedback

Re: Robot hand could harvest blackberries better than humans

#50

Post by RataNova »

helltone wrote: post #14

Every time I see these headlines, the tech seems to be at least 10 years away from product. - demos done in a lab controlled environment without the crazy things that happen in a real world. - no humans nearby so none of the safety features that would be needed should this thing work alongside/near humans. - no regards for economics, expensive vision models, expensive hardware, no consideration for maintenance and re…

Yeah, this is the classic robotics hype cycle
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