VisionRobotics
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Fruit-picking robots closer to reality
It looks like Vision Robotics' would-be fleet of agriculture robots is getting a little closer to reality, with the previous crude 2D sketches of 'em now replaced with slightly less crude 3D models (among other developments). Last we heard from the company, its scout robot was still a long ways from hitting the farm, but Wired News is now reporting that Vision expects to have a prototype of it ready sometime next year, with the larger harvester bot expected to follow two or three years after that. As before, the company plans to have the scout robots plot out the best fruit-picking route, which the harvester would then follow, grabbing hard to reach fruit with the utmost delicacy -- no doubt picking up a few humans' jobs along the way.
Vision Robotics' agricultural scout robot, coming soon to a farm near you
Here at Engadget, it's a safe bet to say that we've never met a robot we didn't like. Still, people who work as farmhands may not take too kindly to this concept for an agricultural droid from Vision Robotics. The idea is that a scout robot would use vision and mapping technology to determine what areas of an orchard need to be harvested, and then would deploy itself, or possibly a team of "harvester" robots to bring home a basket of delicious goodies. It's similar to a tomato-picking bot we spotted nearly two years ago, but we're guessing that the mapping aspect makes this new one a bit different. From what we can tell, these bots are still in the lab, if not on the drawing board, but a recent application to the US Patent and Trademark Office shows some promise. If the scout robot gets approved or someone spots it roaming the Central Valley of California or the Yakima Valley of Washington, we'll let you know. Cyber house rules, indeed.
