Page 16 - Ulpan-Or: e-Tone 01-12-16, Advanced Level

E-Tone™: Ulpan-Or Weekly News Digest

Item #3 (Advanced Level)

Apple Loving Robot

There are robots that perform operations, there are robots that drive cars;
and now, for the first time, there’s also a robot that picks apples. The apple
harvest takes several months every year, since (you) have to check every
apple on the tree, one by one, to see whether it reached (its) ripening time,
the right size and color. This robot, an Israeli development, equipped with
a Kinect camera like video games, can identify exactly which fruit is right
to pick every time. The developers have been working on this device for
nearly two years and have a world patent on it. In about a year the robot
will have twelve arms and be able to pick hundreds of tons of fruit a day,
and in the future other fruits as well. Unlike human workers, it doesn’t ask
for resting or drinking breaks and works in any weather. Despite the
advanced development, bringing the hi-tech world to agriculture, it’s
received with mixed feelings. The price of every robot is expected to be
about two hundred thousand dollars, and maybe this is what will march
agriculture and farmers in Israel forward, and bring them back to being
worldwide leaders.

Page 16 - Edition 01-12-16

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