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.