Are robots the pickers of the future?

by JOE HINCHLIFFE

THE sight of fruit rotting on trees in Stanthorpe and strawberries withering on the bushes in the Sunshine Coast this year drove home a hard truth that growers know all too well.

There aren’t enough Australians willing to pick the fruit and vegetables we all expect to be in our fridges.

Because when the international borders closed, no amount of government incentives and schemes to coax urban Aussies into the fields could replace the flow of seasonal workers upon whom growers have come to rely.

But Queensland researchers are coming up with technologies which might provide another solution to labour shortages: robots.

CQ University is currently developing what it says will be the world’s first mango auto-harvesting robot, with prototype testing underway on a Yeppoon farm.

 Led by Professor Kerry Walsh, the team began its journey towards robot pickers several years ago by coming up with technology to non-invasively test the quality of fruit.