With a bumper crop of apples expected this season, many Washington tree fruit growers dream of a day when automated technology helps bring in the harvest. Manoj Karkee, assistant professor with the Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems at Washington State University, believes that day will soon be here.
Karkee and his team of WSU scientists recently won a $548,000 US Department of Agriculture grant to develop tree fruit harvesting technology where robots and humans work side by side.
The cost of seasonal labor is increasing and the availability of a semi-skilled labor force continues to become more uncertain. But will growers embrace robotic fruit harvesting? “Growers are very, very interested in this technology and enthusiastically waiting for it,” Karkee said. “In three to five years we hope to have a prototype to demo in the field, and in another five years be able to point to where growers can adopt the technology.”
Funding for the research was awarded through the National Robotics Initiative, a joint program of the National Science Foundation, USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, National Institutes of Health and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
