Robot to Support Grape Cultivation Demonstrated in Central Japan

Tokyo, June 12 (Jiji Press)–A multifunctional robot designed to help with automated cultivation of Shine Muscat grapes, a luxury variety, was demonstrated at an experimental fruit farm in the city of Yamanashi in the namesake prefecture in central Japan on Friday. The self-propelled four-wheel robot, being developed by the University of Yamanashi and others, measures about 120 centimeters in length and about 90 centimeters in width. Its arm attachments are changed depending on the type of tasks. In the day’s demonstration, the robot showed how it conducts thinning operations on Shine Muscat bunches. After grape bunches were scanned with a 360-degree camera mounted on an arm, artificial intelligence installed in the robot determined which fruit to remove, and the robot used a gripper to remove grapes out of bunches. It took three minutes to thin a bunch, while experienced workers can finish the task in a minute. Such tasks are currently performed manually by growers based on experience, placing burdens on them. Securing labor is also a challenge. The university plans to improve the robot, such as reducing work time and making it resistant to water and dust, aiming for practical use in four years. “We hope to make the robot available to farmers as soon as possible,” Mao Xiaoyang, a professor at the university, said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]