Inmarsat, the global mobile satellite communications provider, has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership with Pessl Instruments, a provider of advanced agriculture technology solutions, to become its sole connectivity and platforms provider. (more…)
November 14, 2017
Posted by: Zenobia Hegde
How do you value land use? How can you benchmark crop performance? How do you measure sustainability? These are big questions in agriculture. To help technology developers create the tools to support industry answering these questions, Agrimetrics has created a new Developer Portal (more…)
November 9, 2017
Posted by: Zenobia Hegde
Ingenu Inc.™, has announced the availability of its Machine Network™ in Phoenix.
With a coverage area of more than 1,850 square miles, the network provides Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity to the sixth largest city in the United States, serving a population of over 3.1 million. (more…)
August 16, 2016
Posted by: Avadhoot Patil
Actility has announced a partnership with Rubicon Water. This collaboration is set to assist Rubicon in providing IoT technology to further enhance irrigation efficiency worldwide and tackle the exacerbating global challenges of water scarcity and agricultural productivity. (more…)
May 20, 2024
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
A Taiwanese technology company and Nordic Semiconductor module partner, Quanta Storage, has launched a new combined Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi module, designed to make the development of next-generation smart home, wearable and industrial IoT products easier than ever. (more…)
February 2, 2024
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
In China’s autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, China Unicom Inner Mongolia has been making significant efforts to build digital villages, to vitalise the local economy and enhance the lives of residents. Collaborating with Huawei and other partners, the telecom operator has expedited the development of digital information infrastructure, using advanced technologies to drive the transformation of these villages. As a result, local residents have experienced numerous benefits from these initiatives. (more…)
January 23, 2024
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
Skylo has announced that it will interconnect its non-terrestrial network (NTN) satellite network with FocusPoint’s PULSE platform enabling FocusPoint’s IoT monitoring and emergency escalation service. This new service will monitor IoT devices and provide real-time escalation of alerts globally to the appropriate authorities. Key industries benefiting from this innovative new service include: agriculture, energy, transportation, utilities and automotive. (more…)
January 5, 2024
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
Elevat has announced a technical partnership with Microsoft that will reshape the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape. Using Elevat Machine Connect and Microsoft Azure Edge, the collaboration aims to accelerate digital transformation and empower businesses with enhanced connectivity and insights. (more…)
December 20, 2023
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
The World Internet of Things Convention 2023, the eighth edition of annual conference hosted by the international organisation “World Internet of Things Convention”, was recently held in Beijing. (more…)
December 4, 2023
Posted by: Magda Dabrowska
KUKA, in collaboration with the Upper Bavarian company digital workbench, launched a cooperation at Agritechnica, a trade fair for the agricultural sector in Hanover, Germany. The primary objective of the collaboration is to boost assistance with the deployment of a mobile harvesting robot to support fruit farmers during the apple harvest.
“Both companies are contributing one of their most innovative new developments for automation in fruit growing to this cooperation,” Josef Schmidt, a founder and managing director of digital workbench gmbh, said. “With KUKA, we have an absolute specialist with many years of experience and sophisticated know-how in the field of robotics at our side. The result is a practice oriented collaboration that will provide us with many valuable insights for our next development steps with regard to automation in fruit growing.”
Schmidt added that “In the future, we want to test and further develop the interaction of our equipment and exploit synergies, especially with regard to apple cultivation. We are very much looking forward to this.”
Two KUKA small robots from the KR AGILUS series are mounted on the new Tipard 1800 multi-carrier platform from digital workbench. In a pilot project that has been running since 2020, KUKA is already testing a customised version of the small robot specifically for apple harvesting. With a vacuum suction cup combined with artificial intelligence and vision technology, the extremely manoeuvrable precision artist has been used in harvesting test runs.
Compared to a conventional gripper, the vacuum suction cup can distribute the pressure more evenly over the surface of the apple and thus avoid unwanted pressure points. Cameras recognize important parameters such as ripeness, condition and size and, of course, the position of the apple. The carrier platform presented at the trade fair impresses above all with its high performance and almost endless multifunctionality. In addition, the Tipard 1800 takes digitization and automation to a whole new level.
In future, the robot arms will move autonomously across the fruit fields in specific practical projects. The mobile and smart automation solution of the two cooperation partners will then be used where previously harvesting machines with several harvesting assistants were used.
“We assume that harvesting robots will be used more and more in the future,” Alois Buchstab, a vice president at KUKA Business Development, said. “The technology still needs to mature for large-scale use and the plantations also need to be planted in such a way that the harvesting robot can work efficiently.”
The aim is to work with a digital workbench to develop a robot system that makes the most difficult tasks in agriculture easier. An automatic apple harvesting system that does not damage the crop is an important development in an industry that is dependent on seasonal labour. For KUKA and digital workbench, the key therefore lies in automation.
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November 23, 2023
Posted by: Anna Ribeiro