By Lindsey Birnie and Malcolm Wood. (Massey University website)It was a bulletin on Radio New Zealand’s 6.30am rural report that made Garth Atkinson pause. The kiwifruit industry was going through one of its perennial crises. The fruit were ripening on the vines, but growers could not find the labour to pick them.During the course of the 13-week season, the newsreader said, 100 million kiwifruit would be picked by hand.By hand, thought Atkinson.
In an age of automation the idea seemed an anachronism Perhaps, he thought, Massey could do something about that, and as a business development manager with the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology he had an idea about who to approach.Dr Rory Flemmer, the expert in robotics to whom he took the problem, was more certain. With what he knew and the expertise he had to hand, an automated picker was definitely do-able.
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