The robots have infiltrated our food system… some more, with the help of Abundant Robotics and their horde of apple-harvesting robots, that are ready to be unleashed upon the world, but, first, New Zealand.
New Zealand-based T&G Global will be the first company to deploy the robots to harvest its apples for commercial use, with Abundant hoping to expand their reach globally in the near future. The announcement was made alongside a recent press release by Abundant CEO, Dan Steere.
Developing an automated apple harvester requires solving a number of complex technical problems in parallel, from visually identifying harvestable fruit and physically manipulating it to pick without bruising, to safely navigating the orchard itself.
Humans are pretty good at this sort of thing, with their built-in tactile feedback, ocular organs, and fleshy phalanges, but there has been a worldwide shortage of farm workers for several years, so the robots aren’t really hurting anyone. Except maybe the backpackers of the world. Get a real job, Samantha!
I was hoping to see something humanoid, and vaguely menacing (in a lovable way), stalking the orchards, but Abundant’s harvest bots look pretty much like regular agricultural machinery. Which is also cool, I guess. Certainly makes them perfect as sleeper agents in aid of the eventual Uprising.
Think of it this way, future generations won’t have to listen to that one friend go on about their year spent backpacking around wherever, harvesting fruit to pay their way, at one with their spirit animal, and just really living, y’know?