Researchers from the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering published their work on an apple-picking inflatable robot arm.

Ryan Dorosh, lead author and PhD candidate, said the robot was made “mainly to address a labor shortage in orchards in Washington.”

With the hired farm workforce both aging and declining, the robot is designed to help workers instead of replacing them.

“We are trying to help by having a safe enough system for workers to be close to, and by prioritizing robots to pick apples that are harder to reach,” Dorosh said.

The robot cost “around $5,000” to manufacture compared to similar products that are more expensive because they have “segments that move on rails,” making them less energy and time efficient, said Dorosh. “Ours has a wider range of movement without having to move the platform it’s on.”

Making the robot inexpensive keeps it accessible to farmers who are losing fruit and profits because of labor shortages.

To make the arm flexible, the researchers talked to manufacturers and people who work with textiles, ending up with the inflatable tube man-like material the model uses.

The material also lets multiple robots “have their arms closer together,” said Dorosh. Little damage would be done if they bumped into each other, meaning less expensive repairs, and people would be safe to work around the machines.

Currently, the robot can locate, pick, and deposit an apple in “25 seconds.” With further development, the researchers hope to get that time to “about 10 seconds.”

One of the factors limiting the robot’s speed is “the vision system being able to detect the apple,” said Dorosh.

WSU’s Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center and Cornell University researchers are working on upgrades for the webcam in the robot’s palm and the “RGB and depth” camera on the main body. “Right now they’re working on how to count the exact number of apples in a cluster to determine which to pick first,” Dorosh said.