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Farmer Coalition Offers $250K Prize For Blueberry Picking Robot (robohub.org)

Posted by timothy on from the hard-labor dept.

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.

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Have they asked Yahoo! for help? by Guy+Harris · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    They might have some people with ideas about how to grab blueberries at high speed.

    1. Re:Have they asked Yahoo! for help? by KGIII · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I've never really found her all that attractive but you get her to compete in a hands-free blueberry pie eating contest and I'll lick that goo off her like a dog licks peanut butter off the roof of their mouth.

      I mean, yeah, I have *some* standards.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Re:We should hate farmers, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    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?

    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."