Rise of the Proletariat Robot Class?

Robots can do a lot, from building cars in factories to sorting items in warehouses, and even patrolling streets. But until very recently there were some, almost basic, things robots could not do...like picking apples from a tree. A Guardian article finds advances in robotics now have the potential to transform agriculture. 

While picking fruits is a simple thing for humans, developing a robotic implement that can "pick an apple and drop it into a bin without damaging it is a multimillion-dollar effort that has been decades in the making." Teams around the world, including Joe Davidson's at the Orgon State University, have tried various approaches. Their collective efforts are helping turn "fruit-picking – a backbreaking, time-consuming human task – into one that’s speedy and easier on farm workers." From the Guardian article:

Teaching robots to perform these tasks requires modernized versions of both the orchard and the apple. Traditional orchards, with irregularly shaped trees and giant canopies, are too much of a challenge for algorithms to parse and process. Shifting sunbeams, fog and clouds add to computer vision’s challenges. Tangled, tall old trees are problematic even to human pickers, who end up spending much of their time hauling and positioning ladders, not picking fruit. Now, many growers have transitioned to orchards where trees grow flat against trellises, their trunks and branches at right angles to create a “wall of fruit” (see below) ...the thinner canopy also lets more sunlight in, encouraging fruits to form. 

In orchards with trellised trees, robots...essentially a giant arm mounted on a rolling platform reach up for the fruits...sensors under each [robotic] fingertip track the pressure, speed, angle and other aspects of its grasp to help the robot complete its task...the fingers tighten, then twist, and the apple – successfully picked – rests in the robot’s palm. Here's an example of a good pick:

And an example of a bad one:

The robot's hit rate isn't that great, so far. It has picked an apple successfully about only half of the times. Still, the robotic arm has cracked some problems that posed hurdles to automation. For instance, it can avoid damaging both fruit and tree limbs in the harvesting process. Rapid improvements in computing make Davidson and others hopeful the robots will work on farms within the next five to 10 years. That's right, the tech to teach robots how to pick fruit may still be a decade away. It's that deceptively hard...do you suddenly have more respect for your species? 

It’s unclear to many farm workers how the robots will affect their livelihood...Across various industries, including agriculture, waves of automation have led to job losses and a devaluing of human work...[but] the emergence of robotic farm workers could even be an opportunity for humans to engage in different – and far less strenuous – work than pruning or harvesting, says Ines Hanrahan, executive director of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission. “When you take the physical aspect out, these tasks become more accessible to older workers or those less physically capable of lugging ladders and things. It enables more people to be drawn into this work.”

We'll see. In any case, it's still a while off before farm robots lead a revolution and go from targeting apples to humans.