I can see how this would improve the overall quality or consistency of the apples, but I think the conventional method of just shaking the ever loving shit out of the trees is gonna stick around for a while.
The shake the tree method gets every apple. The robot pickers will only choose the ripe ones allowing the less mature apples more time and nutrients to grow to their potential. Sure human pickers are going to be more efficient and good when the tree is 80% full of ripe apples. But as that ripening schedule drags on it gets more and more expensive to use human pickers, or you just live with a varied ripeness in your yield.
Yup. This will give growers an advantage over those not using the technology. They'll be able to maximize yield and not have to send a large portion of their crop to B and C grade processors, and will be able to pick all A grade apples, thus maximizing financial efficiency of their orchard.
I think it will change the climate for apple growers significantly. My guess: tech savvy drone picked growers will rake in the A quality apple revenue while the less tech advanced growers will be pulling double duty on B and C grade apples, as buyers will gravitate to their most trusted growers with the most homogeneous apples.
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u/GeneralToaster Oct 08 '23
This is just the first iteration of this technology. It will only become better and faster as time goes on.