[Report] Robot Arm Picks Tomatoes... A Preview of Korean-Style Smart Farm

Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting Robot

[Asia Economy Jeonju=Reporter Kim Hyewon] Upon entering the semi-enclosed greenhouse, which has become the international standard for smart farms, a robot arm resembling a gadget arm selectively picks only the ripe tomatoes. This is made possible by a crop yield monitoring robot equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technology that automatically recognizes tomatoes and first classifies their ripeness.

Based on a 1,000-pyeong greenhouse, previously two people took two and a half hours to perform pest control work, but now a pest control robot can accomplish the same task alone in one and a half hours. Of course, for farmers, fully automating without human touch can actually be inefficient. Therefore, a very small number of workers are assisted by transport robots that maintain an appropriate distance and follow them closely. In the past, a person had to move after loading 80kg to the unloading area, but now the transport robot can easily carry 250kg and move automatically, making efficiency incomparable.

This is a glimpse of the near future of our rural areas. Currently, these robots are undergoing field verification at the smart farm inside the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences under the Rural Development Administration. The advanced digital greenhouse at the Rural Development Administration, visited on the 6th, is a Korean-style future greenhouse aiming for "optimal growth environment without time and seasonal constraints." Each greenhouse is equipped with overhead monitors that allow a comprehensive view of indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, wind direction and speed, dew point, solar radiation, as well as greenhouse work details.

When the door of greenhouse number 2 opened, a prototype pest control robot busily moved along magnetic rails laid on the floor. The pest control robot, which is in the stage of integration research to reduce weight and improve performance, is an unmanned production facility responding to the decline and aging of the agricultural population. At one side of the entrance, there was a production measurement system monitor that recognizes individual tomatoes and determines their ripeness. Simply put, another robot performs the task of selecting the optimal tomatoes for harvesting or those with low ripeness that are not yet ready for harvest. When the robot takes images of the tomatoes, AI technology classifies the ripeness into six stages, including color sorter (for export), paint sorter (for domestic use), and fully ripe. Kim Kyungcheol, an agricultural researcher at the Smart Farm Development Division of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Rural Development Administration, explained, "It could be applied to predict the harvest time of various fruit and vegetable crops based on accumulated temperature."

The highlight is the harvesting robot. The ultimate goal is for the robot, not a person, to pick the tomatoes marked by AI as ready for harvest. Currently, this technology is in the early development stage, with the project period until 2024. During the prototype robot demonstration on this day, the harvesting of tomatoes was not observed. The robot attempted but repeatedly failed. Researcher Kim said, "It takes a skilled farmer 5 seconds to pick one tomato, but through continuous research and development, we plan to advance the harvesting robot's technology to this level. While a skilled farmer can work continuously for 5 hours, the harvesting robot can operate 24 hours, ultimately replacing more than four times the human labor."

Cooperation between humans and robots is an inevitable trend and directly linked to the future of rural areas. When a worker calls the transport robot, autonomous driving following multiple sensors is basic, and the day when the robot alone transports the harvest to the unloading area is not far off. Researcher Kim emphasized, "Although cases of robot application in domestic agricultural fields are extremely rare, the development of agricultural robots for sustainable agricultural technology starts now. Beginning with the development of production measurement robot technology, we will advance the technology until the day it is applied in the field through pest control, harvesting, and transport agricultural work robots."