Libertad is one of the regions that produces and exports most of Peru's blueberries . Its good performance also helped counter the decline of other products such as gold, fishmeal, avocados and asparagus in the first four months of the year, according to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism.
However, producers face a major problem: determining the exact time when massive harvesting of blueberries should begin. Errors in projections cause many economic losses to farms.
ROBOTS FOR PRE-HARVEST SOUNDING
In response, the Labinm Robotics research team at Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego (UPAO) is developing a prototype robot that can take samples of bunches of blueberries and, using algorithms and artificial intelligence, determine when the fruit should be harvested in bulk.
"Farms have their harvest projections and based on those they hire a lot of people for this period, but when the calculations fail they have to wait, but the cost of personnel and machinery still has to be borne, and that's why we decided to develop this prototype, to provide solutions," said Sixto Prado Garini, principal researcher at Labinm Robótica.
The specialist said the prototype, which is still under development in the laboratory, has four motorized wheels controlled by electronic boards that are calibrated, configured and integrated with other boards based on the power consumed by these elements.
It also has two high-tech sensors that virtually capture the environment and assign a mathematical representation of it, which allows the robot to direct it to the growing area and ask it to scan the fruits to count them and analyze their color, associated with the degree of ripeness.
"For example, if there are 5,000 blueberries in a plant, the robot will determine that 40 percent are ready to be harvested in a week, while the rest will be ready to be harvested in a week and a half. It samples the field and then extrapolates the results. This information is sent through a web or satellite application, because we are giving it Industry 4.0 features, and it is sent to the company's managers so they can make hiring decisions," he explained.
Prado Garini assures that the goal of the technology projects he leads is not to destroy the work, but to integrate and transform it for the betterment of the industry. This project started in February 2021 and is expected to be completed in December 2023. It was also executed with funds from Concytec (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica, an organization of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers) worth S/ 200,000(Eur 50,000 n.d.t.).
Source: myblueproject
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