“We had a chat with the Australian Banana Growers’ Council (ABGC) and they were looking at how robots and AI could help the banana industry,” said Chris Lehnert, chief investigator with QUT’s Centre for Robotics.
Media coverageFebruary, 2024
It’s often top of the list of Australia’s most popular fruit, finding its way into lunch boxes and smoothies across the country every day.
But it takes a bit of effort to get bananas from the farm to the fruit bowl, with growers relying on a significant workforce to pick and pack each harvest.
Now, scientists are working with the industry to develop a prototype robot arm to separate the banana fruit from the stalk, a labour-intensive process known as de-handing.