Farmer Tech: Springtime Is Here : Tomato Harvester

By Kate Gammon , published on April 20, 2009 at 1:30 PM
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NASA has been hard at work on a device that can gently pluck fruit from a plant–as it plans for future space exploration, no doubt. In space, plants provide clean air and water filtration in addition to food. It’s not an easy task, as robots tend to have trouble sensing ripe fruit and grabbing objects gently. The best option so far is this harvester, which has four fingered hands that can twist, pull, and manipulate fruit, as well as a robotic sensing "eye" to determine the number and position of ripe tomatoes. The researchers say their success rate is 95% in the lab and 85% when tested in commercial greenhouses.

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Comments
sublifer 04/20/2009 10:39 PM
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Nifty stuff. Its nice to see how modern tech is making its way into the different fields such as agriculture. (no pun intended)

Anonymous 04/21/2009 10:06 PM
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14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...

hustler539 04/21/2009 11:02 PM
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LOL at the donkey wagon....The Plant sensor, however, seems like a good idea for beginner gardeners.

average joe 04/21/2009 11:13 PM
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I didn't understand the Donkey Wagon at all. Why can't you just use the solar panels to charge the cell phone. It's a wagon with a solar panel. Is it lighter than other wagons or anything? It looks like it has nice tires.

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:08 PM
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openair: Better use a white bedsheet!

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:18 PM
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Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:38 PM
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ProDigit80 :
Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!


They aren't using a tank, they're using an underground aqueduct (or some other natural structure). Since it will be a few hundred (or thousand) feet below the surface, they'd have to build up some extreme pressure to do more than blow a vent hole (maybe Iowa will soon have its own Old Faithful?). I also don't think its going to be a high-pressure system, probably only a few PSI at best.

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:39 PM
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Anonymous :
14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...


Agreed. I was raised in the SW desert, so when I visited the east coast the concept of de-humidifying something was completely foerign to me, but yeah, they've been around forever.

Anonymous 05/18/2009 1:01 PM
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I am currently working on making a virtuel hortibot simulator, using MS Robotic Developer Studio :) Check it out if you like

www.youtube.com/CornIsKing

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