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Article: Researchers find fertile field for innovation in labor-intensive agriculture
- Article from:
- Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- Article date:
- September 24, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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American apple growers can't predict the yield of each year's
crop, nor the size of fruits that make up annual harvests.
"Orchard agriculture is the exact opposite of a modern factory,"
said Sanjiv Singh, a research professor at Carnegie Mellon
University's Robotics Institute. "In manufacturing, managers can
decide how many of something they produce and when."
But growing specialty crops -- apples and oranges, for example --
relies on people walking among rows of trees, examining fruit
health, checking for bugs and noting branches that need to be
thinned or pruned.
"What we're trying to do is increase the efficiency of producing
apples," Singh said last week, standing at the edge of one of ...