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posted by n1 on Sunday July 12 2015, @09:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the i've-got-a-brand-new-combine-harvester dept.

Agricultural robotics research fellow Dr Christopher Lehnert spoke at CQUniversity yesterday about robots being developed to pick fruit and detect weeds.

One problem they could solve was harvesting labour shortages.

"It's a causal workforce problem. (For farmers) their really high risk is getting a workforce to pick the fruit," Mr Lehnert said.

"There's not a worry about job losses. We're just shifting the paradigm. Instead of being in the field, they will control robots."

He hoped to be well on the way towards a commercial fruit-picking design by the end of next year.

Another part of his research was designing robots for broadacre weed management.

"We are looking at taking the human out of the tractor and getting an autonomous platform," he said.

"The large machines they use on farms do a lot of damage to the soil. They compact the soils and destroy them.

"But robots would be smaller, they wouldn't cause this issue."

Hmm, this kind of thing didn't end well for the Quarians...


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:06PM (#208174)

    Exactly my point. Putting a label on something to create the air of 'better'.

    Places like Whole Foods have built entire businesses around the air of 'better'. When measurably they are the same or worse. Apple has made an entire business around selling 'better'. When measurably it is about the same (even using the same components as everyone else).

    Better is a matter of testing. Not of opinion. Opinion I can manipulate. It is called with my one word for you : Marketing. Specifically market segmentation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation#Psychographic_Segmentation). [wikipedia.org] By filtering out the haves (people with money) from the have nots. You can segment your market by selling into the 'haves'. This creates demand from the have nots by wanting to be haves. You are not a poor plebeian are YOU?!

    My point was this sort of situation where people grow food vs robots is ripe for exactly this sort of marketing exploitation.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @05:29PM (#208180)

    You know that "manufactum" literally means hand-made, don't you? If there is one example of marketing exploiting the notion that something isn't machine-made, it's this. Just checking...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @07:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @07:46PM (#208227)

      And you know as well that "factum" means "made"? So much for all your "facts", whether made by hand or by machine!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @08:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2015, @08:45PM (#208236)

        "Fact" derives from the other meaning: Done. As in "what's done is done."