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Re:How Driscoll’s Is Hacking the Strawberry of the Future by JoeAltmaier on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @03:30PM (#9971030)
More variables: picking only ripe fruit; handling the fruit more carefully; picking more rapidly so you can share the robot with many growers; refrigerating the fruit from the moment of picking. Any of these could make it worthwhile?
Re:How Driscoll’s Is Hacking the Strawberry of the Future by mikepurvis on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @04:44PM (#9971435)
This is more an argument for an augmented human system than it is a slam dunk for something completely autonomous.

For example an unmanned, refrigerated, follow-me cart with a soft hopper could be a multiplier on picking productivity without all the hassles of actual mobile manipulation and perception.

Re:How Driscoll’s Is Hacking the Strawberry of the Future by smt88 on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @04:34PM (#9971375)
Humans have evolved to be good at identifying and handling ripe fruit. I think a machine could be better, but it'd take a ton of R&D.

If a machine picks fruit 2x faster (which is unlikely, check out a YouTube video of people picking), then you still only need 2 people to beat it in efficiency.