There wouldn't be much space for a crane to move around the trees which would be spaced around 20 feet each I guess. Even a small crane takes up lot of real estate and also crush everything under its weight.

Maybe a flying drone cutter might work too.

You could probably use a scissor lift; but it's pretty expensive; someone said the trees are 15m, a new scissor lift that goes that high is in the neighborhood of $40k USD, in the US. Most likely more expensive in India.

Crane would be way more complex and something like 50x more expensive.

That’s where the innovation comes up, use materials and structure to bring down the costs. Even if initially it costs higher, it can pay back by it’s multi-use, maintenance, energy efficiency by using mechanical energy applied by human muscle with creative use of hydraulics and mechanical designs.

Usually multi-purpose robots cost way higher and requires more maintenance and costs. Given the average labour costs in India with over 10% unemployment in urban areas and much higher in rural areas created by economic mismanagement for second term by the current government. I believe human labour is more versatile and cheaper, if supported by right amount of technology in India. It’s crucial for its development.

Along those lines, seems you could design a far simpler, non-electric frame that could be rolled up a trunk with a mechanical cable/waldo cutter for the coconuts.

Yes agree with you there are more than one solution, crane was just one thought. This is thinking out of the box and a cornerstone of innovation. My concern with robotics is sometimes it's much easier to use humans and with application of sufficient amount of technology can be much better. In some cases robots are essential where humans are too difficult to operate. So we need both, but in this specific article they mentioned coconut harvester in India and here there isn't a need for this robot except as learning exercise.

You would do better to come up with innovative new jobs for humans to do. It's easier to come up with a new service jobs than it is new materials to build cranes with

Humans can always invent new forms of labor. Limited only by imagination and opportunity. We should be automating everything we can while actively creating new categories of employment for every person

Why not just get a cherry picker truck? Those already exist, can be purchased used and drive around from one tree to the next.

My hunch the roads aren't super suitable for modern machinery either.

Also the crane probably can't reach 90% of the trees in an orchard (or is it grove?).