FFRobotics: The Time for a Paradigm Shift

摘要

At this year's annual IFTA conference, FFRobotics, an Israeli based firm led by Mr. Avi Kahani, presented its approach to a fresh fruit robotic harvester. Robotic harvesters have the potential to change the way apples and fresh fruit in general are picked, packed, and delivered.Despite the fact that mechanized agriculture has been with us for more than 200 years, and advances in the field such as autonomous tractors and robotic sorters, it seems that agriculture still lags far behind in technological terms as compared to otherindustries. While in agriculture, advanced technologies and robotics are in the embryonic stages, other sectors (such as factory manufacturing) are undergoing a robotic revolution. In fact, robots are forecast to perform 45 percent of manufacturing tasks by 2025 (Bank of America and Merrill Lynch).