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 &
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10:00-10:45 “
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Agri-Beef Co., Inc.
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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
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