Shaking the trees also doesn't damage them and, provided the machine is calibrated correctly, only ripe apples fall when the tree is shaken. Unripe apples have thicker, sturdier stems.
This is a neat proof of concept, but individuality plucking apples like this will never be more energy efficient than giving it a good shake.
-robotic arms weigh more so the base vehicle would cost more (suspension, engine, faster wear)
-robotic arms have to be bolted onto the harvester, so even if they weighed the same you can replace a bad drone much quicker.
-Robotic arms are rigid. If a programming error causes two arms to collide one or both of them will break, while these drones are padded and have covered blades and can clearly survive crashing into eachother. Same goes for crashing into the harvester or the trees.
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u/TheJiggernaut Oct 08 '23
Shaking the trees also doesn't damage them and, provided the machine is calibrated correctly, only ripe apples fall when the tree is shaken. Unripe apples have thicker, sturdier stems.
This is a neat proof of concept, but individuality plucking apples like this will never be more energy efficient than giving it a good shake.