Harnessing AgTech for business improvement

From the creation of the plough to the irrigation system, mankind has always strived toward innovative solutions to meet the ever-increasing pressure to feed the world. 

Considering the historically close relationship that exists between technology and agriculture, it’s little surprise that within Queensland’s present-day horticulture industry, fresh produce growers are trialling and relying on methods to take efficiency and productivity to the next level – with robots. 

Optimism about finding the right fit

When Fruit & Vegetable News visited Littabella Pines it was a hive of activity with pickers and machinery operators putting down tools for the day.

An early adapter who readily admits to looking to improve his pineapple farming operation every day, Littabella Pines owner John Steemson, recently trialled a robot on-farm, the LYRO Robotic Packer, created by LYRO Robotics.

John’s goal – to see how mechanisation might work when sorting pineapple tops for planting.

The LYRO Robotic Packer first grabbed John’s attention at a demonstration event held at another local farm where the robot was packing zucchinis.

“I was a little bit excited about the prospects,” John said.

“My first thought for that robotic arm was to get a more even crop establishment through the sorting of pineapple tops.”

John sees this as only the first step and maintains an optimism about the future of horticulture in the digital age – both as a producer, employer and for a farm’s workforce.

“A robot arm is just one capability of the technology bundle,” John explained.

“There’s lots of emphasis or interest in the pineapple industry about mechanisation, in particular for harvesting.

“The COVID situation is amplifying people’s needs for potential labour saving or reduction.

“This is going to create more than it will decrease [job] numbers.

“If we can increase our production by 10 percent that’s 500t a year.

“If we’re going to produce 500t more fruit, there’s a need for that relative amount of labour.”

However, John remains cautious about the direction AgTech is taking.

“Robots have been around for a long time, and I have been suitably unimpressed with the standard of robotic technology systems,” John said.

Despite his scepticism about some of the robots in the field, John sees the LYRO Robotic Picker bringing success to many farms under the right circumstances.

“The machine that LYRO had here in the shed sorting pineapple tops, I’m sure it will be refined,” John said.

“The robot arm will have a lot of potential for things like planting, when a plant has to be oriented in a particular way to be placed in the ground.

“The sky is the limit. It’s all about creating situations that suit the mechanics as well as adapting the mechanism to suit the situation.

“There was some realisation at that point, tech engineers will sit in a lab and develop something that they think fits the market. LYRO are willing to come and meet the market and say, ‘What can we do to fit the need?’

“I am impressed with their attitude, and it certainly suggests a profitable outcome will be available for both parties.”

Rebooting the workforce with robots

For LYRO Robotics co-founder, Nicole Robinson, merging technology with horticulture has been a goal since her days studying computer science at QUT.

“It was something I knew quite well, both agriculture and robotics,” Nicole said.

“Fruit and vegetables are all different. You need something that’s intelligent enough to pick up different types of shapes, sizes, weights and colours.

“So it was a really interesting technical problem to bring our software stack to address. That’s what the LYRO Robotic Packer excels at.”

With R&D trials completed and the LYRO Robotic Packer contracted directly with clients to help ease labour force pressures, adaptability of the robot is important for its future success, meeting the needs of different fruit and vegetable growers.

When Fruit and Vegetable News asked Nicole what sets LYRO Robotics apart on its path to a commercialised product, they said working with growers to solve problems has been key.

“We’re really driven to shape things in a way that is solving the right problem,” Nicole said.

“We’re focused to bring value in the fresh produce industry. Building the features that matter the most.”

The one-armed robot, with a hand – known as a gripper – could easily be mistaken for an automated machine instead of a robot.

The differences are subtle and in the process of packing shed operations, results can vary.

“Sometimes, the idea of a robot brings about a specific image that people create in their mind,” Nicole explained.

“A robot can be as simple as a piece of machinery that can perceive what it’s doing and has the ability to adapt in an intelligent way.

“We consider it [LYRO Robotic Packer] a robot because it can perceive the environment and react in a dynamic way – slightly different to a machine or automation – where everything is in the exact same routine and if anything changes along the process, the machine or automation might not have any capability to deal with it.”

The robots are coming for our jobs!

Mark Adams, LYRO Robotics general manager, is confident that the digital revolution will lead to a whole new class of roles for farm workers.

He refers to historical data to back his case up, echoing the words of John Steemson, who says farmers have always adapted and utilised new technological breakthroughs to enhance their farming operations.

“If you look historically, there were half a million people employed in agriculture feeding a population of about 4 million,” Mark said.

“Now we have about 350,000 people employed in agriculture feeding a population of 26 million and exporting.

“We don’t miss those 200,000 jobs – we celebrate efficiency and the advances in technology that allowed that to happen.”

Additionally, Mark refers to the fact that there is a huge mismatch between labour supply and demand, which is hugely affecting regional Australia.

“A lot of the people aren’t from the region, farmers are relying on backpackers and seasonal workers to do these jobs,” Mark said.

“I think far from actually taking jobs, it’s going to create a whole new class of jobs.

“In the long term it will be much cheaper to use the machines or robots instead of hiring people to pick and pack.”

LYRO Robotics expects its technology to continue to gain momentum as growers find solutions to deal with labour supply pressures and that in the long-term a robotic workforce will be cheaper than a human one.

The goals of this robot start-up set a high watermark.

“Our goal is to have robots around that contribute to packing a wide variety of produce, this would be a great outcome for anyone who is feeling the pressure of getting their crops picked and packed,” Nicole said.

LYRO have worked closely with fresh produce growers to optimise their technology and see a lot of strong parallels in key skills shared between techies and farmers.

“What we have in common with farmers is that they’re entrepreneurs, first and foremost, and they’re very good at solving their own problems,” Mark said.

“There are some very sophisticated engineers on these farms.

“Looking at some of the solutions that John Steemson and some other growers have created in their back shed is very interesting – to solve problems because the market hasn’t solved it.

“Ultimately in terms of problem solving there is more common ground than there are differences.”

LYRO Robotics forecasts that mechanisation through use of robots will increase output from a current rate of 1:2 versus output from a human.  

“I think you’ll see that ratio creep up to a robot doing the output of two people,” Mark said.