Robots could soon pick the fruit you eat, potentially solving labor shortages and putting people out of work.
Robots spread seeds of change in orchards
Researchers at Oregon State University are observing human fruit pickers in an attempt to copy their movements with robotic fingers. The technology could relieve humans of some of the hard labor of harvesting fruit.
"It's likely that robots will need workers for redundant tasks like harvesting and pruning," George Kantor, a professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University who was not involved in the study, told Lifewire in an email interview. "However, there will always be a need for human managers to make decisions about how best to use resources and balance risk."
About 70% of fresh produce growers and producers struggled to find the seasonal labor they needed in 2021. But efficiently harvesting fruit is a skill humans have been developing for millennia, but one that’s hard to teach to robots.
