The flying AI robot can pick fruit 飞行机器人摘水果

王睿

为了解决水果采摘劳动力短缺的问题，以色列一家公司将航空、机器人和人工智能技术结合，创造了智能化空中采摘机器人。

Its getting harder to find fruit pickers to harvest the worlds orchards （果园）. COVID?19 travel restrictions have prevented seasonal workers crossing borders， so some farmers are turning to AI drones to pick their crops.

Last year， with travel restrictions in place around the world， governments across Europe appealed to those who had lost their jobs in the pandemic to help with the harvest. Spain and Italy even offered to allow illegal migrants the right to work as pickers.

Now an Israeli company， Tevel Aerobotics Technologies， has invented a flying autonomous robot （FAR） which uses artificial intelligence to identify and pick fruit. The robot can work 24 hours a day and picks only ripe fruit. The innovation was a direct response to labour shortages. “There are never enough hands available to pick fruit at the right time and at the right cost. Fruit is left to rot in the orchard or sold at a fraction of its peak value， while farmers lose billions of dollars each year，” the company said.

The robot uses AI perception algorithms to locate fruit trees and vision algorithms to find the fruit among the leaves and classify its size and ripeness. The robot then works out the best way to approach the fruit and remain stable as its picking arm grasps the fruit. The robots are able to harvest the orchards without getting in each others way because of a single autonomous digital brain in a ground?based unit.

“We need a large number of reliable pickers and we have to pay wages， organize visas， housing， food， health care and transportation，” said John White， CEO of Marom Orchards， one of the first fruit farms to use the new flying robot pickers. “Costs are rising all the time. This is hard， seasonal work，” he added.

Tevel insists its robots are designed to complement human fruit pickers rather than replace them. The company claims there will be a shortage of five million pickers by 2050 and says its robots will ensure the 10% of fruit currently left unharvested will all be picked in future.

1. Why is the example in paragraph 2 discussed？

A. To show the effect of COVID?19.

B. To tell the tough situation in Europe.

C. To stress the necessity of effective measures.

D. To provide background knowledge for the FAR.

2. Whats the FAR intended to do？

A. Figure out the number of ripe fruit.

B. Solve the problem of lacking labour.

C. Prevent fruit from being left to rot.

D. Reduce the high cost of farmers.

3. What does paragraph 4 mainly talk about？

A. The safety of the FAR.

B. The popularity of the FAR.

C. The efficiency of the FAR.

D. The working procedure of the FAR.

4. What can we know about the FAR according to the text？

A. It will take the place of humans in the future.

B. It has been widely used in developed countries.

C. It is helpful to reduce loss and waste of fruit.

D. It has become a symbol of innovation in agriculture.

Text?centered chunks

appeal to 吸引;呼吁

be available to 可被……利用/得到的

work out 想出;得到

a large number of 大量的

a shortage of 短缺

be designed to do 旨在做……