![]() ![]() ![]() Polly currently costs $10,000 each and can handle just under an acre of greenhouse space, but the cost is expected to go down as the company scales up production. Greenhouse personnel are instead employed to agitate the plants using a “pollination wand” - a handheld stick with a vibrating end - three times a week during bloom. Strict biosecurity regulations prevent bumble bee hives from being imported to Australia, a country without any native bumble bee species. “They forage for pollen when they want to, not when it is optimal for the plant, they spread viruses in the greenhouse, and they are also banned in Australia and other countries where pollination is still performed manually.” “In greenhouses of tomatoes and other crops, there is the issue of pollination, typically performed using commercially produced bumble bee hives,” says Iddo Geltner, the CEO of Arugga, in a presentation at the International Startup Showcase conference. Tomatoes can self-pollinate, so this agitation is all that is needed to set fruit. They have developed a robot, named Polly, which is designed to scoot up and down rows of tomato plants while using its on-board cameras to locate and blitz flowers with calibrated streams of air. The company is based in Israel, and is the first to commercialize robotic pollination for greenhouse tomatoes. Not every pollination robot looks like a miniature, buzzing bee, though - some weigh 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs) and fly with helicopter blades while spewing out soap bubbles containing pollen, others are as light as a bee with flexible wings that really flap, and some don’t fly at all, but roll on the ground and pollinate flowers by blasting them with pulses of air.Īrugga AI Farming is a robotic pollination company that has opted for the latter approach. With major breakthroughs in the last three years, the technology is not far off from regular commercial use. ![]() Researchers and engineers from around the world, including the U.S., Japan, Israel, and the Netherlands, have been working on building pollination robots for almost a decade. But what you spy flitting between flowers are not bees at all - they are miniature, autonomous robots zipping to and fro, pollinating flowers as they go.Ī future with robots pollinating our crops sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but the concept is not as far-fetched as it might seem. The trees are humming with activity, and you look up to see what visitors you might have. The sun is shining through the branches and the air holds the scent of delicate blossoms, offering an early nectar and pollen buffet for honey bees and native bees alike. Imagine that you are wandering through an apple orchard. Pollination robots are being deployed in greenhouses, but we should think twice before sending them into the field Plain Talk Beekeeping: The Basics … and then some. ![]()
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