Robots Harvesting Coconuts

In earlier days I was introduced to harvesting coconut trees in south Florida.  Even knew people who could climb up them to do that.   Who then attempted to teach it to me, but left me only with the knowledge of how hard it was to do.  And also quite un-safe.  Now robots can?   

Amaran the Tree-Climbing Robot Can Safely Harvest Coconuts
The robot could one day reduce the need for humans to take on the risky job of climbing coconut trees   By Michelle Hampson

Coconuts may be delicious and useful for producing a wide range of products, but harvesting them is no easy task. Specially trained harvesters must risk their lives by climbing trees roughly 15 meters high to hack off just one bunch of coconuts. A group of researchers in India has designed a robot, named Amaran, that could reduce the need for human harvesters to take such a risk. But is the robot up to the task?

The researchers describe the tree-climbing robot in a paper Published in the latest issue of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Along with lab tests, they compared Amaran’s ability to harvest coconuts to that of a 50-year-old veteran harvester. Whereas the man bested the robot in terms of overall speed, the robot excelled in endurance.    ... "