Wall-Ye is one of a handful of similar projects under development in the wine world. Both California and New Zealand are developing intelligent vision-based pruning robots. Richard Green of the University of Canterbury is developing a pruning robot backed by French drinks giant Pernod Ricardo. He predicts it will save the New Zealand wine industry 17.6 million Euros ($23 million) per year through increased productivity and reduced yield losses. But it's not just about labour costs; it's about the quality of the pruning. We often have novice pruners who have to be trained each year,' Green said. In California, Vision Robotics founder Bret Wallach said their robotic vine pruner, still in test phase, is three metres (10 feet) tall with eight cameras, and pairs a 3D model of the vines with customised pruning rules.
It's the same rules you would give a manual crew,' said Wallach. But manual crews are growing scarce in California. 'And it gets worse every year. Labour issues aside, some French growers are unwilling to see robotic pruners industrialise what has historically been a craft-based product. Technically it's interesting, but intellectually, it's inconceivable. It doesn't fit with my philosophy of making a grand worth of an easy fortune cru,' said Philippe Bardot, owner of Chateau du Val d'Or. I'm all for automating robots to carry out monitoring provisions and certain tasks, but not pruning.' Pruning is a particularly sensitive task. This is because it tells the vine how many bunches of grapes to produce and affects its ability to ripen the fruit to perfection. Also carry out planed cultivation makes for easier figures rather than whole crop been left to over ripen and dilemma of vast waste.
No comments:
Post a Comment