AGRI-OPENCORE. Accelerated delivery of robotic crop harvesting systems for horticulture

众所周知，由于英国脱欧、COVID、乌克兰及人口统计，英国园艺业因缺乏季节性收割劳工而受到严重限制。今年，由于农作物被采摘，NFU主席Minette Batters表示，该部门处于“绝对的”食物浪费“危机”中。DEFRA正在与工业界合作减轻影响。通过由SoS Eustice共同主持的多利益相关者自动化审查证明，最近的粮食战略白色文件（2022年6月）呼吁永久解决劳动力限制问题;通过开发和采用先进的机器人系统来提高劳动生产率。虽然全球范围内还没有机器人系统达到人类采摘成本的平价，但草莓采摘的最佳系统为2kg/h，目标为30 kg/h，有进步，尤其是英国的中小企业。大规模采用的其余关键挑战是：1。更快的拣货速度，实现人力成本平价2\。可信、有保证和安全运行的证据3\。然而，由于园艺具有高度的生产多样性，开发用于许多不同作物和系统的商业用途的机器人的成本很高。此外，机器人集成需要高度多样化的技能，在初创公司中并不总是可用的。AGRI-OPENCORE是解决这些问题的一项大胆举措，专注于\[1\]减少为任何农场/作物开发机器人收割系统的时间和成本，并具有人力成本采摘平价性能\[2\]留下遗产，以加速为所有作物开发任何农业机器人系统AGRI-OPENCORE通过\[1\]前所未有的跨部门合作实现这些目标（APS沙拉，BerryGardens，ClockHouseFarm，HughLoweFarm，林肯大学，佐贺，Dogtooth，Xihelm，Wootzano），\[2\]创建一个开放的创新生态系统，\[3\]在英国农场进行规模化的共同创造和技术演示。为了实现这些目标，AGRI-OPENCORE将为农业机器人作物收割创建世界上第一个开放式开发平台（软件和硬件）。AGRI-OPENCORE提供了对核心软件和接口的开放访问，这些软件和接口迄今为止对中小企业是不可用的，但一旦被采用，机器人公司（又名智能手机应用程序）就可以私下利用这些软件和接口。我们将通过开发用于番茄和草莓收获的商业机器人系统来证明这一原则，该系统将在2年内实现人类采摘成本平价。AGRI-OPENCORE的开放生态系统为任何机器人公司/农业系统创造了持久的遗产。它加速了机器人采摘的采用（2年），逐步改变了劳动生产率，确保了经济和环境高效的农业系统（减少浪费/进口替代），能够抵御冲击（劳动力可用性）。

It is well accepted that due to Brexit, COVID, Ukraine and population demographics, the UK horticulture sector is heavily constrained by a lack of seasonal harvest labour. This year as crops have gone unpicked, NFU President Minette Batters stated that the sector was in an "absolute" food waste "crisis". DEFRA is working with industry to mitigate impacts. Evidenced through a multi stakeholder automation review cochaired by SoS Eustice, the recent Food Strategy White Paper (June 2022) called for a permanent solution to the labour constraint; transformation of labour productivity through the development and adoption of advanced robotics systems.Whilst globally no robotic system has yet reached human picking cost parity, the best systems in strawberry pick 2kg/h v target of 30kg/h, there is progress, not least by UK based SME's. The remaining key challenges for scaled adoption are;1\. Higher speed picking to achieve human cost parity2\. Evidence of trusted, assured and safe operation3\. Integration of robotics with farm infrastructure and human resourcesHowever, as horticulture has high production diversity, the cost of developing robotics for commercial use across many different crops and systems is significant. Furthermore robot integration requires highly diverse skills, not-always available in start-up companies. AGRI-OPENCORE is a bold initiative to resolve these issues and focussed to\[1\] cut the time and cost to develop a robotic harvesting system for any farm/crop with human-cost-picking-parity performance\[2\] leave a legacy to accelerate development of any agri-robotic system for all cropsAGRI-OPENCORE delivers these objectives through \[1\] unprecedented cross sector collaboration (APSSalads, BerryGardens, ClockHouseFarm, HughLoweFarm, UniversityofLincoln, Saga, Dogtooth, Xihelm, Wootzano), \[2\] creation of an open ecosystem for innovation, \[3\] scaled cocreation and demonstration of technologies on English farms.To deliver these objectives, AGRI-OPENCORE will create the world's first open development platform (software and hardware) for agri-robotic crop harvesting. AGRI-OPENCORE provides open access to core software and interfaces that are hitherto unavailable to SME's, but when adopted can be privately exploited by robotics companies (aka smartphone apps). We will demonstrate the principle by developing commercial robotic systems for tomato and strawberry harvesting that achieve human-picking-cost-parity in 2 years.AGRI-OPENCORE's open ecosystem creates an enduring legacy available for any robotic company / farming system. It accelerates robotic picking adoption (by \> 2 years), step changes labour productivity, secures an economic and environmentally efficient farming system (reduced waste/import substitution) that is resilient to shocks (labour availability).