Because of the shortage of workers available to pick fruit at orchards, Tevel Aerobotics decided to develop autonomous flying drones as an alternative. So, with these fruit-picking drones, you will have so much fun picking the fruits.
How do fruit-picking drones work?
The Flying Autonomous Robots (FAR) units came with a wheeled base vehicle that goes up and down the rows of fruit trees. In addition to four quadcopter drones that are connecting electrically to the vehicle, which provides them with power.
The company said that the drones are able to differentiate between individual fruits and other objects. Thanks to their onboard cameras and AI-based computer vision algorithms. These Drones can also know the size and ripeness of each fruit, and fly toward those that seem to be suitable for harvest.
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After selecting the fruit, the drones use an integrated grasper arm to pick the fruits. Then, they drop them onto the deck of the vehicle. As long as the base vehicle’s battery lasts, the FAR can work all day and night.
Users, Who want to take advantage of the FARs services, can rent fleets of them. Once the company delivers the units and the picking process begins, an app will provide the amount of fruit picked. It will also give the time left in the harvesting process.
According to Tevel Aerobotics, the system isn’t available for commercial use till now. But it will be used in pilot projects at apple orchards in many countries like Spain, the US, and Italy.
