AUSTRALIAN farmers are looking to increase labour efficiency by training farm staff using virtual reality equipment, employing robots to move fruit containers and wearing exoskeletons to support physical labour.
The research delivered through Hort Innovation and led by The Growth Drivers in consultation with berry growers aims to identify practical technology-based solutions to address one of the industry's biggest challenges.
The research comes 10 years after the idea of a headset to help workers pick fruit was presented at a conference for apple, pear, stonefruit and nashi growers on the Gold Coast.
At the one-off Innovate or Real Estate Conference in 2013, University of Sydney professor of robotics Salah Sukkarieh, delivered information about the possibility of robotic harvesting for tree crops and crop estimation via GPS-guided mobile "robots" fitted with cameras and senses.
Professor Sukkarieh also made mention of new technologies such as the then newly released, Google Glass, which provided a heads-up display for users.
He said paired with the right software and camera equipment, this technology could lend itself to glasses that help fruit pickers identify ripe fruit, therefore improving harvesting accuracy and reducing staff training.
A decade on, and Hort Innovation chief executive Brett Fifield said there was an increasing demand from horticultural industries to explore and adopt technologies that help solve growers' biggest challenges.
"The berry industry has experienced significant growth in both volume and value but is heavily dependent on hand-picking to meet the demand for fresh fruit," Mr Fifield said.
The Growth Drivers project lead Ky Snyder said the research showed there were multiple solutions available.
There is huge potential for the technology to revolutionise fruit picker training by reducing training time significantly, and also facilitating off-season and off-site training.
- Ky Snyder, The Growth Drivers
"The use of virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular in horticulture, providing workers with immersive and engaging training experiences," Mr Snyder said.
"There is huge potential for the technology to revolutionise fruit picker training by reducing training time significantly, and also facilitating off-season and off-site training."
"Another example are the autonomous collaborative robots that use artificial intelligence to navigate between locations for various in-field tasks such as crop scanning and transportation.
"By eliminating time spent by pickers in transporting picked fruit and for collection of supplies, a potential labour saving of up to 20 per cent across picking crews is possible. "
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Hillwood Berries farm manager Andrea O'Halloran said the research has expanded the berry industry's understanding of what is possible.
"Who knew that autonomous robots and virtual reality headsets could be just around the corner for berry growers," the Tasmanian grower said.
"This research provides our industry with a roadmap for further development of these solutions, with the ultimate goal of berry growers being able to put this technology into action."
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