DID A ROBOT pick your strawberry? It’s becoming far more likely. There’s a crisis in the farming sector, and farm businesses across the world are struggling to find workers to meet the world’s demand.

In the UK, the National Farmers’ Union is urging its members to lobby their MPs, as concerns over Brexit threaten the seasonal workforce of 60,000 workers who pack over 300 types of fruit, flowers and vegetables.

Even if you don’t work in farming, you might have heard about the havoc caused in the strawberry fields of Radio 4’s The Archers.

But stepping - or whirring - into the breach are a new workforce of robotic pickers, planters, thinners and checkers.

This month, a company based at the University of Plymouth unveiled its new robotic raspberry picker, which can pick around 25,000 berries every day.

And UK supermarket Waitrose has just begun a new trial with the Portsmouth-based Small Robot Company, which aims to replace large, environmentally-unfriendly farm equipment with smaller-scale solutions.

Its robots - ‘Tom’, ‘Dick’ and ‘Harry’ - will plant seeds, kill weeds, and create maps of the plants in a field.

A solar-powered weed-spraying drone is already at work on US farms, and robot strawberry pickers can not only pick fruit but can also work out if it is ripe or not. Robotics are being used for sowing, weeding, and thinning out crops - with overhead drones able to take health checks of crops and report back with video footage.

And as well as solving a worldwide labour crisis, the new technology has environmental benefits, as robotics allow for precise measuring of chemicals, don’t put so much pressure on soil, and can even weed by laser.

Nexus supplier EL.Co. is ready to meet the needs of robotics producers, with a range of solid state relays that can be used in robotic control, 3D printing, and drone vehicles.

Relays are electronically controlled switches, which have proved their value in telegraph operations, phone communication and computing.
Their extremely long life, resistance to shock and vibration, reliable operation in harsh environments, and ability to operate without being dependent on being the right way up, makes them perfect for use in remote applications and robotics.
EL.Co. has already showcased these items at a special SPS Italia fair in Italy - EL.Co’s home country - which this year specifically focused on advances in robotics and mechatronics.

Visitors could see some of the latest collaborative and cooperative robots, showing how digital technologies could improve performance and efficiency across a range of sectors.

You can read more about the advantages of solid state relays on our Nexus newspage here - http://nexuscomponents.co.uk/News/View/%20Solid%20State%20Relays%20-%20small,%20fast,%20and%20long-lasting/24

And our full range of EL.Co. solid state relays can be found here http://nexuscomponents.co.uk/Products/Solid-State-Relays/Solid-State-Relays.

Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash