Robotic harvester could transform asparagus industry
Tauranga company Robotics Plus and the New Zealand Asparagus Council are working with asparagus growers to develop a world-first commercialscale autonomous robotic asparagus harvester.
The harvester could alleviate ongoing labour shortages in the industry and assist growers to tap into lucrative
export markets. The Government's Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund is contributing $2.6 million to the five-year, $5.83 million project, dubbed 'Asparagus Future.'
Council chairman Sam Rainey says robotic harvesting will be a gamechanger for the industry, which relies heavily on picking asparagus by hand.
“An average picker will walk 10kms per day, so it's extremely difficult to attract people to do the work. Having the ability to access a commercial robotic harvester will also go a long way to helping manage costs.”
Robotics Plus chief executive Steve Saunders says the harvester project is now moving into a 12-month programme which will include a heavy grower focus.
“This will help us really understand their requirements to ensure we deliver a usable machine with the right return on investment. An autonomous asparagus harvester will ease labour constraints and reduce and stabilise costs, while also allowing New Zealand asparagus to be more competitive in high-value export markets.
“It's an ideal robotics project: Green asparagus is conducive to automation as it grows above ground. In addition, it replaces a physically arduous job that only has a brief employment window that growers struggle to attract harvesting labour for.”
The project is building on a prototype harvester robot developed by University of Waikato researchers with Robotics Plus. Over the last two seasons, Robotics Plus has supported the university's prototype asparagus harvester project, led by senior lecturer in Mechatronics and Mechanical, Dr Shen Hin Lim.
The first prototype robotic asparagus harvester was demonstrated in California in 2019, and the second was trialled in Waikato in 2020.
“These early prototypes have given Robotics Plus great insights into creating a next-generation commercialscale asparagus harvester and has helped generate strong interest from the asparagus industry,” says Saunders.
“With support from the Ministry for Primary Industries who run the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, the New Zealand Asparagus Council, and ongoing support from the University of Waikato and other partners, we will deliver automation to the asparagus industry at a time when it desperately needs to remain sustainable and keep up with consumer demand for fresh produce.”
Advancing the project to a commercially available asparagus harvester will help increase grower returns and exports, says grower Geoff Lewis of Tendertips.
“However, it's not just the picking that is important; it's all the other aspects this technology can bring to the industry, such as yield data and potential add-ons such as packing and even weeding.”
New Zealand Asparagus Council Business Manager Karen Orr says the project will help create a unique selling proposition for New Zealand grown asparagus overseas to generate export revenue for the country.
“Half of the cost of producing asparagus is labour. We had thriving asparagus exports in the 80s and 90s, but that has reduced to almost no exports due to increasing costs, particularly for labour.
“That's why we've named this project ‘Asparagus Future'. This project is our future. We'll help growers work together with Robotics Plus and MPI to create a future path with this autonomous crop
management project.”