By building a ‘bot to crack a back-breaking task, Dr Shen Hin Lim gives hope to our asparagus industry.
Our horticulture sector is facing a labour crunch and asparagus growers are particularly hard hit. Workers must walk fields daily to spot spears of the required height and then stoop to pick them, making it one of the most demanding crops to harvest. In a world-leading innovation, Dr Hin combined sophisticated cameras with computer vision, machine learning and a novel cutting device to create a robot capable of picking asparagus at a commercially-viable speed. The technology has attracted significant investment and has potential for many other crops.
Dr Shen Hin Lim
Machine for a mean green
Datamars Engineering Science Award
By building a ‘bot to crack a back-breaking task, Dr Shen Hin Lim gives hope to our asparagus industry.
Our horticulture sector is facing a labour crunch and asparagus growers are particularly hard hit. Workers must walk fields daily to spot spears of the required height and then stoop to pick them, making it one of the most demanding crops to harvest. In a world-leading innovation, Dr Hin combined sophisticated cameras with computer vision, machine learning and a novel cutting device to create a robot capable of picking asparagus at a commercially-viable speed. The technology has attracted significant investment and has potential for many other crops.