EdEarl Posted September 26, 2013 Posted September 26, 2013 From Phys.org The device, which can gather a piece of fruit every eight seconds, uses three cameras to determine which strawberries are ready to pick before darting out an arm and snipping them into its basket. The two-metre (6ft 6ins) robot moves on rails between rows of strawberries, which are usually grown in elevated planters in Japan. It "calculates the degree of ripeness from the colour of the strawberry, which it observes with two digital cameras", said Mitsutaka Kurita, an official of Shibuya Seiki which developed the machine. Once they teach it to pick and pickle peppers, it can be named Peter Piper. Devices such as these are needed because farm labor is in some places not affordable or not available, and robots should eventually make more fruits and vegetables available at affordable prices. Eventually, a Peter Piper Personal can care for a home owner's garden.
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