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CapitalPress.com January 5, 2018 Partially robotic apple picker envisioned By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Yet another innovator seeking to de- velop a robotic apple picker doubts three others will have commercial machines soon and believes his partially robotic concept is more readily attainable. Minglei Xu, 42, was born and raised in Shanghai, China, and obtained his master’s degree in computer science from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in 2000. He worked in the Silicon Valley before becoming a serial entre- preneur in 2010. He built the gaming studio Wild Needle and sold it to Zynga in 2012. He started Grow Mobile — an ad-buying platform for marketers to buy, track and optimize mobile app promotions — in 2012 and sold it in 2014. The next year, Xu settled on a ro- botic apple picker as his next challenge because of the need, given labor short- ages and because apples are relatively common in shape and size versus dis- similar objects that are more difficult for robots to pick. He started the com- pany FruitBot in Palo Alto, Calif. “Picking apples is very repetitive and grueling work that the robot is very good at,” Xu told Capital Press. More resources are being deployed into the navigational side of Artificial Intelligence such as self-driving cars, but manipulative AI such as robots capable of cooking or picking fruit without rigid coordinates is the key un- solved arena, Xu said. Dan Wheat/Capital Press Abundant Robotics of Hayward, Calif.; HarvestMoore of Pasco, Wash.; Minglei Xu, CEO of FruitBot, Palo Alto, Calif., demonstrates soft grip of his robotic apple and FFRobotics in Israel all hope to picker at the Washington State Tree Fruit Association annual meeting in Kennewick, have robotic apple pickers ready for Wash., on Dec. 4. commercial use in late 2018 or early the low-hanging, easy fruit and humans lots of smart people thinking about the 2019. They may be able to reach that goal pick what the robots miss. problems.” under very constrained conditions but Xu wants to focus solely on software Such a system could be commercial- won’t be able to achieve the picking ized in 2019 with a 60 to 70 percent pick and robotic picking and says convey- rate, he said. Robots are not so good at ance of fruit into bins, field sorting and rate they want, Xu predicted. “A fully automated robotic pick- apple clusters and could beep to alert stem clipping may include humans and ing system in any industry is nowhere humans to pick those, he said. can be figured out by companies already close. It’s five years away at least,” he “The robot speeds up the most repeti- engaged in farm equipment such as PIU- tive and easiest part of the work,” Xu said. MA in Italy and Automated Ag Systems, said. A big problem is avoiding obstacles It’s a transitional move that doesn’t builder of the Bandit Xpress harvest-as- such as limbs and leaves that a robot require a big a leap of faith by growers sist platform in Moses Lake, Wash. Xu said he has spoken with both but mistakes as fruit, Xu said. It is seen as as a purely robotic system does, he said. a two-dimensional issue that requires Mike Willett, manager of the Washing- has not started working with either. He foresees developing systems to aggressive pruning and thinning to ton Tree Fruit Research Commission in remove obstacles when it’s really a Wenatchee, said he wrote in a letter in not only help in harvest but logistics and support of Xu getting a Specialty Crop big data, that is tracking of each piece of three-dimensional problem, he said. While others are targeting the pick- Research Initiative grant. fruit to provide much more information ing of apples within a depth of 18 “A lot of people are looking at pieces to marketers and retailers. inches inside the canopy, he said he is of the puzzle. There are a lot of issues. Xu is working with five growers in working toward a 36-inch depth. His Harvest is one,” Willett said. “There’s Washington and California for field tri- solution is one or two robots on the front thinning, blossom thinning and differ- als but wants to visit more orchards to of a harvest platform assisted by sever- ent tools at the end of a robotic arm. To look at differences in tree architecture al human pickers behind. Robots pick move it all forward, we need to have and fruit varieties. Tillamook transmission line proposal meets with controversy By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Controversy over an elec- trical transmission line in Or- egon’s Tillamook County is expected to come to a head in 2018 as the developer pur- sues three key permits. The 8.6-mile line would cross farmland and forest- land, drawing opposition from landowners in its path who worry about impedi- ments to agriculture and log- ging. Opponents argue that a new transmission line between Tillamook and Oceanside isn’t justified by actual electricity demand, but may instead be intended as a connection to future wave power or offshore wind ener- gy projects. The Tillamook Public Utility District, the project’s developer, claims the trans- mission line is necessary to improve the reliability of the electrical grid and denies it’s motivated by renewable ener- gy speculation. Adding to the tension is the utility’s planned use of eminent domain to obtain easements along the trans- mission line’s route. “It’s really angering peo- ple in the Tillamook area, as it should,” said Cameron La Follette, executive director of the Oregon Coast Alliance conservation group. To begin construction, the utility district would need to obtain a conditional use per- mit from Tillamook County, a fill-removal permit from the Department of State Lands and eminent domain author- ity from the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Those three permits are pending and are expected to undergo public comment in the coming year. The Oregon Farm Bureau and Oregon Dairy Farmers Association have both ob- jected to the project. For dairy farmers affected by the line, it’s problemat- ic for multiple reasons, said Kurt Mizee, whose family owns Tilla-Bay Farms. “Stray voltage,” which oc- curs when electricity essen- tially leaks into the ground, is one concern, he said. The phenomenon is known to reduce milk pro- duction among dairy cows and harm their health. The transmission line would also prevent aerial pesticide spraying over cer- tain fields and its construc- tion would be disruptive to grazing and silage harvest- ing, said Mizee. A vibratory hammer will be used to install the trans- mission tower foundations, which is also disturbing to cattle due to the region’s soft, spongy soil, he said. “They’ve offered us al- most nothing as far as com- pensation for a pretty big im- pact,” said Mizee. Area in detail 101 Pacific O cean ORE. TILLAMOOK STATE FOREST Tillamook Bay 101 6 Tillamook Netarts 131 Proposed new transmission line 101 N 3 miles Capital Press graphic Forestland will also be negatively affected by the transmission line, which will require trees to be cleared along a right-of-way, said La Follette. A 115-kilovolt transmis- sion line would usually re- quire a 100-foot wide right- of-way, but in this case, it may be narrower under cer- tain circumstances, accord- ing to the Tillamook Public Utility District. Landowners are also con- cerned about the health im- pacts to themselves and their livestock from being exposed to electromagnetic emis- sions, said La Follette. In 2008, the Tillamook Public Utility District agreed to find possible connection points for an offshore wind energy project to deliver electricity to its grid. While that memorandum of agreement has since ex- pired, it shows the utility district is at least open to the possibility of offshore renew- able energy, La Follette said. Todd Simmons, the utili- ty district’s general manag- er, said the agreement with a developer was intended to allow the region to anticipate and plan for offshore energy. However, the utility dis- trict doesn’t now have any plans to connect to such offshore projects, Simmons said. Currently, a single distri- bution line serves about 3,000 properties in the Oceanside area, which is three times more prone to outages than other areas on the utility dis- trict’s grid, he said. “When that line goes out, everybody’s out of power un- til we make that repair,” Sim- mons said. “We’re vulnerable with that one line.” The distribution line is also at 90-95 percent elec- trical load capacity, so more capacity is needed to accom- modate Oceanside’s eventual growth, he said. Constructing a second dis- tribution line — which has a smaller footprint than a trans- mission line — wouldn’t make sense because it could still be affected by falling trees or car collisions, he said. 8:45-9:00 9:00-10:00 Robert Rebholtz Jr., Chief Executive Office & President, Agri-Beef Co., Inc. 10:00-10:45 “ Jeff Van Lith, National Retail Sales Manager, Agri-Beef Co., Inc. 10:45-11:15 (provided by sponsors) 11:15-12:00 Brett Stuart, Founding partner of Global AgriTrends 12:00-1:00 (provided by sponsors) 1:00-1:45 Dr. Matt Spangler, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska 1:45-3:00 Dr. Deb VanOverbeke, Interim Assist Dean, Oklahoma State University; Jesse Fulton, Associate Director – Producer Education, NCBA Note: For more information, please contact Kim McKague at (541) 562-5129 ext 21 http://oregonstate.edu/dept/eoarcunion FREE! No pre-registration required. Lunch Included! 1-4/102 1-4/108 4