The INIA is part of the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture. It works as an institute of agricultural research and is divided into ten smaller regional research locations. The mission of the company is to generate and transfer knowledge and global technologies to produce innovations in the agricultural sector and improve the competitiveness of the sector. For this reason the INIA, together with multiple other international institutes, is working on a harvesting robot.
Project Crops includes fourteen research centers working on a robot that will be able to work in an unstructured environment in an automated way. This harvesting robot will work 24 hours per day in optimal conditions for the crops (warm and humid). It will be able to recognize a fruit in an unstructured environment and harvest only the fruit that is ready to be harvested, without damaging other plants or fruits. CROPS will be able to distinguish ripe fruit from unripe, cut it without damaging other fruit or plants, spray effectively onto foliage only as well as harvest fruit selectively. A robot like this can be could bring revolution in the world of agriculture.
