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Octaeon t1_iui1fd7 wrote

That's cool and all, but I can't help but wonder if it's worth it.

How much does it cost up front? How does it perform in less than ideal conditions? How often does it need maintenance or repair? How much is repair? How much electricity does it consume, and is the yield worth more than the electricity cost?

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Geneocrat t1_iuilvsx wrote

There is no way in hell that thing is scalable.

The energy required to recognize the fruit, the place to pick it, what to do if it’s windy and moving… all that would be very energy intensive, like mining bitcoin server farm type of energy.

Then you have to believe many stems break and the fruit drops, or the fruit isn’t ready yet and you need to judgmentally follow up with a second crew in 2 days or whatever.

The machine would have to cost at least a million and any repair would be expensive as well. For a million dollars you could have a city of decently paid seasonal workers (ok well 250 workers with monthly expense of $4,000, so maybe a small village).

So initial cost plus energy plus upkeep plus net product gain loss (I’d like to the video of this machine working in rain or less than ideal conditions), I’m guessing the prospect of replacing humans is way down the line.

Disclaimer; I’m not a farmer.

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muchcharles t1_iujosdj wrote

> The energy required to recognize the fruit

Have you actually worked this out? ML inference is much less energy intensive than training.

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-ummon- t1_iuiddrx wrote

It would certainly be nice to know that. Also, can it run at night?

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