Although lettuce is a valuable crop in Europe and the US, labor shortages make it difficult to harvest this valuable field vegetable, as sourcing sufficient seasonal labor is one of the sector's biggest challenges. Moreover, with wage inflation rising faster than producer prices, margins are very tight.
In England, agricultural technology and machinery experts are working with IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH from Obersulm, Germany, to develop a robotic solution to automate lettuce harvesting. The team is working on a project funded by Innovate UK and includes experts from the Grimme agricultural machinery factory, the Agri-EPI Centre (Edinburgh UK), Harper Adams University (Newport UK), the Centre for Machine Vision at the University of the West of England (Bristol) and two of the UK's largest salad producers, G's Fresh and PDM Produce.
Within the project, existing leek harvesting machinery is adapted to lift the lettuce clear from the ground and grip it in between pinch belts. The lettuce’s outer, or ‘wrapper’, leaves will be mechanically removed. Machine vision and artificial intelligence are then used to identify a precise cut point on the stem to neatly separate the head of lettuce.
Image: Prototype lettuce harvesting robot of Agri-Epicentre (UK)
The prototype will be used for field trials in England. "We are delighted to be involved in the project and look forward to seeing the results. We are convinced of its potential to automate and increase the efficiency of the lettuce harvest, not only in terms of compensating for the lack of seasonal workers,” said Jan Hartmann, Managing Director of IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH.
Source: agritechtomorrow.com
