Wimbledon Open fans eat 34,000 kilograms of strawberries each year, and strawberry picking requires a lot of manpower. But soon it will be possible for a new robot developed in Europe to pick strawberries. The robot uses photonic technology to detect the fruit and is able to collect enough strawberries for the Wimbledon Championships in less than a week.
This type of robot is made of moldable materials, such as silicone and other polymers, rather than the usual metals. These materials give the robot organic properties that replicate the way muscles work, allowing the robot to move and perform tasks that older metal machines could not.
Because of the flexibility of the materials, robots can now pick fruit without damaging the soft fruit.
Another potential feature of future robots is the ability to repair themselves in a way that mimics the body's ability to heal. Current research has focused on improving the materials used and devising ways to avoid chemical reactions, but in the UK, researchers at Cambridge University are now working on developing self-healing materials. There are multiple possible uses in healthcare, manufacturing, or defense, where an army of self-healing robots would be very useful.
Tim Chin, an engineer, and scientist explains how soft robotics and agriculture are two areas that go hand in hand.
1, Specific applications of soft robots in agriculture - flexible hand claws
Most automated harvesting solutions are only suitable for harvesting crops with large, firm fruit. Few robots are currently available to collect small crops. Many robots operate violently and tend to damage plants during the collection process. This dilemma prompted me to get involved in a research project. The goal of the project was to explore the automated harvesting of light, crisp berries, specifically raspberries. This task required a unique grip. Considering the fragility of raspberries, a soft robot is a suitable solution to this problem. Soft Robotics Inc. and others have made some progress by adding soft elements to the robotic grippers they design. These grippers have the ability to maintain firmness with a focused focus.
2, Specific applications of soft robots in agriculture - tubular structure picking
A tubular structure is created to move to the berry bush and isolate the target raspberry from its neighbors. The end-effector will slide further up the berry stem and then inflate a soft robotic sack. The sack will not grab the berry directly. Instead, the sack will apply slight pressure on the back of the berry where it is attached to the plant stem. The entire stem tube then jerks away, pushing the berry off the stem. This is similar to the way berries are picked by hand.
The lack of manual picking staff on farms worldwide and the problem of rotting, unpicked fruit could soon be solved with robots.
