Robots Now Act as Agricultural Workers

Moving or touching carefully all along a row of apple trees, two of Australia's newest agricultural workers check if the fruit is ripe or the soil needs water or fertilizer.

Congregate "Mantis" and "Shrimp", agricultural robots being tested to do these responsibilities and more in a bid to cut costs and advance productivity in Australia's economically crucial farm sector, which exported A$39.6 billion ($38.8 billion) of manufacture in 2012.

Australia is one of the best leaders in the field and, with a least wage of A$15.96 per hour and a inadequate workforce, has a big incentive to use robots and other technology such as unmanned aircraft to progress effectiveness.

It hopes to tap fast-growing the Asian neighbors, where the swelling ranks of the middle class growingly wish for more varied and better quality food from blueberries to the beef.

Luke Matthews said "The adoption of new technology is going to be crucial for Australia to maintain its competitiveness in terms of the global agricultural sector," commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"If we don't adopt new technology, we can give up on these high-flying ambitions of being the food bowl of Asia."

Agriculture now accounts for 2 % of Australia's gross domestic product, but the government predicts it could arrive at 5 percent by 2050. Its development is particularly significant now the once-booming mining sector is slowing.

Australia is the world's second-biggest wheat exporter and arable farmers are already using specialized technology aimed at improving effectiveness, including satellite positioning software for allowing the farmers to map out land and soil to establish optimal inputs.

By using such technology to optimize the use of the fertilizer can increase prosperity at grain farms by 14 percent, according to the study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Colour Receptors

A robot smoothly plucking fruit is some way off, although a range of simpler responsibilities are within reach to add to existing technology such as automatic steering of harvesters.

Salah Sukkarieh, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney and developer of Mantis and Shrimp, says the next stage aims for the robots to do progressively more complex jobs such as watering and ultimately harvesting.

Sukkarieh said "We have fitted them with a lot of sensors, vision, laser, radar and conductivity sensors - including GPS and thermal sensors,", speaking at his laboratory housing a collection of both ground robots and unmanned air vehicles.

The technology could have the biggest function in horticulture, Australia's third-largest agricultural sector with exports of $1.71 billion in the last marketing year, since a fixed farm layout lends itself improved to using robots.

Robots and an unmanned air vehicle that are being expanded at the University of Sydney had passed field analysis at an almond farm in Mildura, Victoria state, said Sukkarieh.

Propelled by sets of wheels and about the height of a man, the robots were named after native Mantis shrimp because of marine crustacean's 16 diverse color receptors, capable of detecting up to 12 colors. Humans simply have four, three of which pick up colors.

This ability to recognize color already allows the robots to sense whether fruit is ripe.

The data then can be processed by the computer algorithms for determine what deed the robot should take. This could be to water or apply pesticides or fertilizer, or to sweep and prune vegetation, and eventually the aim is to harvest the crop.

"If tomorrow we got an apple, tomato or orange farmer that wants a robot to go up and down these tree crops reliably and accurately, we be capable of do that within six months to a year."

"The question is can we create them more intelligent," added Sukkarieh, who also sees the technology being attached to the standard farm vehicles and foresees a fully automated horticulture farm within 10 years.

Bruised Apples

Australian farmers, who depend on seasonal effort for jobs such as picking fruit and vegetables, said they would greet high-tech help.

Allan Dixon said "Berry picking by a robot would be difficult but if they could produce a robot, I could make a significant saving,", co-owner of the Clyde River Berry Farm in New South Wales, who typically takes on five people every year.

For getting sufficient agricultural workers, Australia allows in some labor from neighboring Pacific island countries and East Timor, and using backpackers on temporary work visas.

Some fruit farmers remain skeptical.

"Apples will always require to be harvested by hand, due to their fragile nature. They bruise extremely easily," said Lucinda Giblett, director at Newton Orchards in Western Australia.

"We see no present opportunities offered by agricultural robots. Even as a pruning device, application is incredibly limited," added Giblett

Productivity

Additional productivity gains will be needed if Australia is to arrive at its target of being the main food supplier to Asia.

A study in 2011 conducted by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences said around two-thirds of the increase in the monetary value of agricultural production in the last 50 years in the country was down to gains in productivity

One more survey by the Grains Research and Development Corporation showed 67 % of respondents in 2011 used auto-steer technology to guide machinery such as harvesters and sprayers, up from 47 % in 2008.

Obstacles for using extra technology remain, however, including the cost of buying or renting equipment and slower increase in research and development spending. Some studies show growth in the use of satellite imagery and soil mapping has stagnated in Australia and the United States in current years.

Regardless of whether it can meet up its targets to provide more food to Asia, Australia is expected to play a great role in global food security by being one of the test beds for new ways to manufacture food more efficiently in often harsh conditions.