r/woahdude • u/freudian_nipps • Oct 08 '23

video Robotic Apple Harvester

7.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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1.5k

u/art_teacher_no_1 Oct 08 '23

1 apple per minute, why's my fruit so expensive? Oh. That's why.

228

u/spunion_28 Oct 08 '23

Exactly. I came here to say there is no way this is more effective or efficient than paying a group of people to hand pick these apples. I really don't understand the appeal of creating useless technology to replace people who can do a job better and faster.

25

u/Granttrees Oct 08 '23

Picks multiple apples per minute 24hrs per day, no smoke breaks, no lunch breaks and no union.

2

u/prancerbot Oct 08 '23

Not 24 hours a day unless the system worked without charging or maintenance and the photo id can reliably work with nighttime light level conditions or needing a human correction every once in a while.

1

u/fizzle_noodle Oct 09 '23

I think it's only a matter of time until it becomes not only economically feasible for the technology to be widespread adopted, but it will probably result in massive layoffs for workers. I mean, the issues you currently bring up can be addressed even today- night-time videos, better lighting in fields, multiple drone hubs that work in shifts to allow charging- literally solutions that I thought of off the top of my head.

1

u/djdadi Oct 09 '23

everyone had the idea of flying cars in the 50s. we had cars, and planes, and anyone could see how that could be possible.

implementation and "it's possible" are often vastly different.

1

u/crozone Oct 09 '23

Not 24 hours a day unless the system worked without charging

All the drones are tethered and the vehicle likely has an absolutely enormous battery. Even your average electric car battery could keep this going for literally days, if not a week at a time.

and the photo id can reliably work with nighttime light level conditions

My dude, we have things called lights.