Monash University’s robot picking apples in seven seconds

Monash University’s robotics team is just a few years away from making its fruit-picking robot commercially available for farmers who lack workers.

Gippsland apple farmer Brad Fankhauser is on the cusp of solving a problem that threatens to derail his family’s 140-year-old farming business; no one to pick their fruit.

It began with a call a year ago from Monash University professor Chao Chen, from the university’s department of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Brad has been involved in a trial of Monash Uni's apple picking robot, which is in its second stage. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Mr Fankhauser was invited to trial a robot on his Drouin farm Dr Chen’s robotics team had developed to address agriculture’s critical labour shortage, with the apple industry front of mind.

“When they started they’d been picking tennis balls from a pretend apple tree. To where they are now is outstanding. Now they’re picking apples,” Mr Fankhauser said.

Monash’s robot can now identify, pick and deposit an apple off a tree in seven seconds in any weather condition – be it rain, very hot or cold temperatures or during the night – and without the need for an external power source. This compares to around three seconds for a human.

Brad and the Monash Uni robotics team responsible for the robot. Eugene Kok, Wesley Au, Chao Chen, Brad Fankhauser, Tianhao Liu, Hugh Zhou. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“We implemented a ‘path-planning’ algorithm that was able to generate collision-free trajectories for more than 95 per cent of all reachable apples in the canopy,” Dr Chen said.

Normally the Fankhauser family relies on 35 workers to pick their crop, but this year they’ve made do with 16 staff, making the robot’s presence in the orchard a welcome addition to the team.

Mr Fankhauser is hoping to be among the first to roll out the technology across their 40ha orchard when it becomes commercially available in three years’ time, either as leased machinery or purchased outright.

“It’s a remarkable leap forward,” he said. “It will work 24 hours a day and in theory in all weather conditions, during the night and on public holidays.”