Robot farmer that discerns ripe fruit

The latest discovery in Japanese robotics is the first farmer automaton that, thanks to the use of modern technologies, is able to pick fruits distinguishing the ripe ones from those green - even by night or with few light.
The innovative prototype, realized by S.I. Seiko - specialized company in automation systems for agriculture - is currently under trial in a strawberry crop in Matsuyama, central Japan.
The robot, whose automatic mechanism doesn’t require the human intervention, is made of a battery (1.7 x 2.2 metres) with special ‘leds’ lights applied on a kart that moves along the greenhouse, stopping every 20 cm to take a picture of the fruits: the internal computer analyzes on real time the image received, real-time recognizing ripe strawberries according to their colour. The picking is then carried out through a mechanical arm.
The machine is able to pick only the strawberries ripe by 80%, in 12 seconds per fruit on average.
After three-years of tests, if results will be satisfactory the prototype will be launched on market.
“There are still many aspect that can be improved - declare a member of S.I. Seiko’s development team - but we are confident that we will soon allow farmers to have their harvest picked without manual labour”.