Demand for indoor and ornamental plants creates additional jobs. But it is not always possible to find employees who are willing to work all day as a loader with a prickly and tender thing. For example, for transplanting roses. These flowers are in demand, but very uncomfortable when grown.
In order for the plant to grow to a size where it can be sold, you will have to complete at least 4 transplants from one pot to another. If it is even 500 bushes, the process turns out to be very laborious. Each plant needs to be raised, delivered to the place of processing and then again taken back to the place of storage and growth.
Advanced Intelligent Systems (AIS - Advanced Intelligent Systems) has developed a robot to help farmers grow ornamental plants. Structurally, this is a platform on which up to 5 pots of 5 gallons can be installed (the most common size in the United States). After installing the colors on yourself, the robot can move on 4 wheels to deliver them to the right place.
At the moment, the main task of this robot is to deliver flowers placed on the floor to the transplant site and return back. A person picking up pots from the floor can injure his back or be tired, it is enough to repair the robot and it can work again. As observations show, workers for loading often hold up the seedlings themselves, which is harmful for them, the robot's manipulators do not touch the plant when loading, therefore they are a more benign option.
Since this development is not the final version, it is planned to modify the AIS robot for inspection and automatic pruning of the plant at the time of transportation. For each variety of a plant there may be its own algorithm and requirements in terms of the size of green mass.
At the moment, Advanced Intelligent Systems is works under supplying robot to real Flower Farms. The main goal of the company is to make massive sales, which will entail a change in the labor market.
