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Farmer Coalition Offers $250K Prize For Blueberry Picking Robot (robohub.org)
Hallie Siegel writes: Having spent many a back breaking hour in deep woods Ontario picking wild blueberries in summer time, I can only imagine the challenge of farming and harvesting these awesome little flavour nuggets. Blueberries are in record demand (probably my son alone accounts for a significant percentage of that!) so it's no surprise, really, that a coalition of farmers has banded together to offer a prize for automated blueberry picking solutions. We've seen competitions and challenges spur innovation in other areas of robotics — think robocar — why not blueberry picking? Can't wait to see the results of this one.
Good luck being cheaper than darker skinned humans.
I think if someone invents such a contraption, they stand to make WAY more than a $250k prize by patenting and manufacturing the thing themselves and selling it to farmers. Really. Who would be stupid enough to give away such an invention for a mere $250k?
We've got torque-based break drives, color-based OCR, and super-tiny pressure sensors to match the torque-break drives for finer degree of control and less chance of damaging the harvested product, plus extendable arms and such.
Strap all of that to a bucket and battery on wheels and send it out into the fields.
Will work with any fruit of a different color than the surrounding vegetation, so add strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, grapes of varying cultivars, apples, oranges, tomatoes, peppers, and more to the list.
I'll take my $250K, now.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Because farmers are strange people that own guns, buy seeds from Monsanto,
Some do, some don't.
Do the farmers who supplied you with the straw you used to build that strawman do so?
Okay, its brooklyn, but close: http://newyork.seriouseats.com...
but they're 4, 6 and 9 years old and they eat half of what they pick. the cost to maintain is far too high for their daily harvest yield.
You're talking about owls, right?
Moooooooo says the cow.You all farming cows.
Have you seen a dog lick peanut butter off the roof of its mouth? It doesn't seem to be a very efficient method of removing food from what the food is stuck to.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Indeed, that's kind of, sort of, my point. She'd suddenly be attractive and I'd make a horrible go of it and would end up taking a long time. Also, I'd make the faces that the dog makes. Hopefully that was a given.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Pepperidge Farms can remember that shit, I'm good. :V
I'll take my $250K, now.
You'll take your $250K when you get it working, and not until. Smarter people than you have already been trying.
If it's so easy, why don't you put a robot where your mouth is, and pick some fucking blueberries with it?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And when seeds blow onto a neighbouring farm Monsanto will sue both farmers for illegal distribution and use of their generically-engineered seeds. Monsanto is one of the "Great Satans."
I agree that Monsanto is evil, the world is still dealing with the results of their criminal chemical past (e.g. agent orange, contaminated with Dioxin, sprayed all over Viet Nam) but this is not what happened. Someone willfully saved seed he knew to belong to Monsanto, and then he got nailed. It's still wrong, but it's not as simple as you make it out to be. It was one patch, he had the choice of what crop to use as seed crop, and that's the patch he chose.
Now, I think it is horribly wrong to lose your farm over that, and I think it's wrong for anyone to be able to patent a plant to begin with, it's just not needed. People would develop new cultivars whether they would own them outright or not. But let's not bullshit about what happened. Monsanto is evil enough without lies.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Farmer Coalition Offers $250K Prize For Blueberry Picking Parrot
She looks like a frumpy old german housewife, with a laugh that could make a donkey blush. Let's not get into her DSM-V diagnosable psychopathy.
250k for a robot whose economic value runs to the billions. Wow. Good deal.
Fill a bucket with leaves and twigs.
Fill a bucket with berries.
Weigh them.
It's magic.
I live in Japan, and I noticed that in the last couple of months blueberries have become much more expensive. Is this a global occurrence or just a Japanese thing?
I know they are imported from the us and mexico, and that yen is weak now, but the timing doesn't match.
So anybody knows what is going on here?
Presumably a prototype has to be built, right? Because no one would be stupid enough to give a prize for a plan on paper, right?
So how many decent prototypes would an inventor have to go through before there's a decent working model?
And if each prototype costs $10-20k, the actual reward for the inventor gets smaller and smaller ... so small that only garage builders are likely to give it a try. A bona fide company with resources, say engineers/techs at $60K a year, machine shops, taxes, are unlikely to give the matter any thought. A university might, but then you will have to wait several years.
TL:DR - you get what you pay for. Put up a $1 million dollar prize and you might see some serious interest.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
We use a fairly small amount of sugar (1kg sugar for at least 4kg berries), but boil for longer to reduce the fluids, then keep the jam in the freezer. Who wants to taste just sugar?
Blueberries make excellent jam (except the pink ones, which all died). We're too far North for them, at 64N. Actually, even the alleged "high bush" blueberries take a decade to exceed a meter in height here, and the "low bush" blueberries rarely exceed half a meter. Then again, we have loads of wild blueberries.
...lieutenant.
They may be having an intoxicating effect on you.
For one... you seem to be able to talk about them until you're blue in the face.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Who?
You know things have gotten bad when people are so greedy they'd rather pay $250,000 for a robot than pay a slave laborer a few dollars per day.
Someone willfully saved seed he knew to belong to Monsanto, and then he got nailed.
That was Percy Schmeiser. He planted canola adjacent to his neighbors Roundup-Ready crop, then saved the seed from that section of his field, and only from that section. The following year, he sprayed his field with Roundup to kill the plants without the Monsanto gene. He now had pure RR canola, which he used and benefited from in the following years. Monsanto asked him to pay a license fee, he refused, so Monsanto sued him. Since this was clearly a case of blatant intentional infringement, and Schmeiser openly admitted to it, Monsanto won.
It's still wrong
Why is it wrong? Or at least any more wrong than enforcing any other patent?
He planted canola adjacent to his neighbors Roundup-Ready crop, then saved the seed from that section of his field, and only from that section. The following year, he sprayed his field with Roundup to kill the plants without the Monsanto gene. He now had pure RR canola, which he used and benefited from in the following years. Monsanto asked him to pay a license fee, he refused, so Monsanto sued him. Since this was clearly a case of blatant intentional infringement, and Schmeiser openly admitted to it, Monsanto won. Why is it wrong? Or at least any more wrong than enforcing any other patent?
Because that's how agriculture works. By permitting people to insert themselves into the system legally, you cause a whole class of problem that we'd be better off without. What I'd rather see is Monsanto and anyone else who wants to sell GM seed forced to use the terminator gene in all of their products. That way, this can never happen. You have to pay every year; they can provide seed every year. It will serve as a disincentive to use them, which is good, because we shouldn't be depending on one company's supply of genetics.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What I'd rather see is Monsanto and anyone else who wants to sell GM seed forced to use the terminator gene in all of their products.
Monsanto wanted to include the terminator gene in their products. They backed down in the face of vociferous protests from anti-GMO activists and extremely negative press coverage.
Monsanto would love a law making terminator genes mandatory. But there is zero chance of that happening. Anti-GMO groups would fight that the for the same reason that anti-smoking groups fight e-cigarettes: They fix much of the problem, thus giving the protest groups less of a cause, and less of a reason to exist.
You pulled quite a feat by comparing a filthy habit (smoking) with the worthy cause of keeping our food free of artificial gene combinations.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
It would be silly to walk back from the field to the scale every time your bucket is HALF full. You'd spend half your time walking backing and forth instead of picking berries. The reasonable thing to do is to fill your bucket (with berries) before walking back.
In Virginia the thrill of the wild berry hunt is often accompanied by a rattlesnake dance where one leaps bout trying not to get bit. If we had machines that would seek and pick wild berries the sale on anti venom would shrink. There could even be a sales slowdown for bear spray.
It is wrong because if I plant a plant and harvest it the harvest is mine. I can do with any part of the harvest however I please.
If he would work under a kind of francising contract and Monsanto would buy everything he produces and supply him with new seeds ... or whatever ... then it would be different.
What is the next thing? You my harvest the apples, but when you cut the tree you have to 'return' the wood to the guy selling you the seeds?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Terminator genes easily hop to other specimem.
How do you think you will survive if most 'natural' plants can not spread naturally anymore?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
How do you think you will survive if most 'natural' plants can not spread naturally anymore?
Please explain how a gene that prevents reproduction will "spread naturally".
By crosspolonization.
By viruses.
By ordinary plasmotic gene transfer.
There are about a dozen mechanisms how plants transfer genes, even between unrelated specimem.
And that is known since ... hm, 1910? Or was it 1930?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
By crosspolonization.
No. The plant doesn't reproduce. It doesn't produce pollen, or viable seeds. That is the whole point.
By viruses.
In which case the gene prevents it own propagation into the following generation.
There are about a dozen mechanisms how plants transfer genes
So? As soon as a plant acquires this gene it will STOP REPRODUCING. That is the whole point. It is conceivable that the gene could somehow get inserted into another plant, via a virus or whatever, but that would be a dead end.
Genes propagate and spread because they enhance the fitness of their hosts. A terminator gene minimizes fitness to zero.
Now you won't need migrant farmers, and the associated leftists to defend them.
Yay capitalism!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Part of the problem is the bushes are quite irregular. A time-efficient and energy-efficient solution (though possibly not space-efficient) will probably involve forcing the bushes to grow in a particular shape, or with a particular size. So it's not really a matter of inventing the robot - it's about inventing the whole system.
What's so worthy about banning artificial gene combinations?
No. The plant doesn't reproduce. It doesn't produce pollen, or viable seeds. That is the whole point.
;D hence the wackoes who hate gMO (that includes me) are against it.
You are mistaken. The plant does not produce viable seeds, but it does produce pollen
In which case the gene prevents it own propagation into the following generation.
No it does not, it leads to an epidemic of plants of different species that are affected by the same virus and hence the same gene transfer (*facepalm*)
So? As soon as a plant acquires this gene it will STOP REPRODUCING. ...
Exactly. Surprising that you don't see the problem in that
Imagine a Redwood tree that lives for 3000 years and does not reproduce over that period.
First of all redwoods might die out, secondly: it is a reservoir for the gene and plant viruses happily can transfer it to other speciems ... some you might take more care about.
Genes propagate and spread because they enhance the fitness of their hosts. A terminator gene minimizes fitness to zero.
The fitness to reproduce. Not the fitness to kill you, to live 3000 years long, or anything else.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
And yet a nut picking machine was developed in this same way so that farmers have lower costs than imports.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Nah, those are dingleberries.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.