The problem
Given Plantations labour shortages in both Indonesia and Malaysia, the industry must automate harvesting soonest in a decisively novel and comprehensive manner.
The collaborative project proposed hereafter only indicates paths to potential solutions.
This is a collaborative project concerning both Indonesia and Malaysia hence a project that qualifies for EU funding with co-funding by Malaysia & Indonesia Authorities & R&D funding from planters with a planted land banks over a quarter million hectares.
This project is therefore mentioned here in not too many details to sound the industry’s willingness to address this issue in a collaborative effort involving planters, research institutes, tech firms and Governmental Authorities.
The solution
- Vehicle & its operator replace
- the grabber operator & his MTG.
- 1 cutter, 1 pruner, 1/2 stacker, 1/10th checker & 1 loose fruit picker.
- It transmits its position wirelessly to the estate backend every X minutes (X being the average time taken to service ONE palm tree in a specific estate).
- Its cutting apparatus is of a totally new design.
- Vehicle mobility mimics that of a worker
- Ripeness is checked optically and recorded for machine learning and AI.
- FFB does not fall to the ground.
- Olfactic and sound sensors onboarded to address among others Ganoderma & poaching.
Contact François Paradis at francois.paradis@oilpalminnov.com.
