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ASI's Forge completes robotic mowing tasks in a California vineyardASI’s Forge robotic platform completes robotic mowing tasks in a California vineyard. Robotic farming technologies help specialty crop growers deal with challenges such as labor and safety.
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It’s amazing to think that the food on your table today was growing somewhere else in the world just few weeks or even days ago. This is certainly the case for fresh fruits and vegetables that farmers often hand-harvest to prevent bruising and leverage local distribution networks to prevent spoilage.

Specialty crops… create an entirely new set of challenges for farmers.

Despite the challenges, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service fruits and nuts account for around 13% of US crop receipts, equating to a staggering $18 billion annually.

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Fruits, nuts, and vegetables are part of a produce group called “specialty crops,” defined by the Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act of 2004 as “fruits and tree nets, vegetables, culinary herbs and spices, medical plants, as well as nursery, floriculture, and horticulture crops.”

Legally, specialty crops are separate from other commodity crops like grains and soybeans by a difference in government subsidies, but they also require many “special” considerations such as land, climate, farming techniques, labor, and marketing agreements that create an entirely new set of challenges for farmers.
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Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI) specializes in the hardware and software that convert farming vehicles from manual to robotic control. Robotic farm technology targets many of the challenges faced by specialty crop growers helping to increase yield while maintaining workforce safety.

Overcome labor shortages. In conversations with specialty crop growers, widespread labor shortages almost always come up. Labor is the largest variable expense for specialty crop grows, and farmers are constantly searching for a new labor supply to combat the unusually high attrition rates among equipment drivers.
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An ASI sales group sees if Forge can fill in for overcome the paralyzing effects of labor shortages.Vehicle robotics can help specialty crop growers combat labor shortages.
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By providing hardware and software that drives vehicles, ASI can help growers overcome the paralyzing effects of labor shortages.

Maintain driver health. Many specialty crop growers we’ve spoken to cultivate tens of thousands of acres and apply multiple fertilizer or pesticide treatments each season. During this time, drivers may be exposed to large amounts of potentially hazardous chemical spray. Farm robotics removes the driver from the cab, reducing prolonged exposure to these substances.

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Improve productivity. ASI’s robotic farming technology allows a single operator to manage multiple vehicles simultaneously. This one-to-many relationship dramatically improves farm productivity.

Reduce driver fatigue. One apple farmer we spoke to said they spray 1500 miles of orchards in five days at 2mph—a task they do 25 times a year. Remaining focused during this kind of driving can be difficult. Driver fatigue and/or inattentiveness can lead to damaged crops, inefficient spraying or mowing, and lower productivity. Farm vehicle robotics takes the mundane tasks out of the hands of human drivers, maintaining crop safety and overall productivity.
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