"Phoenix": the robot that prunes fruit trees on its own

The innovation of the day concerns botany.

Right now, we are in the middle of the pear and apple tree pruning season.

You have found the first robot capable of pruning a fruit tree on its own.

It is an essential operation, as much to have good fruit as to keep the tree in good health.

Problem: the majority of fruit trees are rarely pruned regularly.

It takes time to go branch by branch.

In addition, it takes a knack.

We don't cut just anything, anywhere, anyhow.

Now there is a robot that will do it optimally.

He will start by going around the tree to scan it fully in 3D.

Then an artificial intelligence will analyze the structure, identify dead branches, those that bother others, those that are poorly oriented, etc.

And he will cut them with a mini chainsaw placed at the end of a long articulated arm.

And is it as efficient as a professional?

In principle, yes.

He remembers the smallest details of some fifty species of fruit trees.

This allows him to distinguish the buds which will give fruit, from those which will only give leaves.

It will also calculate the best way to trim so that the light is better diffused.

Or to concentrate the sap as much as possible on the fruit branches.

In short, it is formidable.

It is as if they had drawn knowledge from a Laurent Cabrol and that they had integrated it into the machine.

The robot is called Phoenix.

It was designed by engineers at the University of Hoenheim, near Stuttgart in Germany.

For those who prefer to do everything by hand, they are also planning a lighter application on the phone that will simply say where to cut and why.

This will avoid stinging the job of gardeners while giving them a tool to better do their work.