Advanced technologies for autonomous robotic harvesting of mushroom

根据国家统计局的数据，全球蘑菇种植业每年的价值超过1000亿美元。 农业统计局。所有类型的蘑菇运往新鲜市场，目前收获的 手采收蘑菇的人工成本占总生产成本的30%以上。的 人工收获蘑菇是一个劳动密集型过程，花费了该行业数百万的收入 损失除了收获的直接费用外，招聘和留住熟练工人进行手工作业也是一个很大的问题。 收获蘑菇也是一个真实的挑战。平均来说，一个人需要大约24个月的培训。 成为一名专业的收割机工人。临时外国工人计划（TFWP）的最新变化 加拿大使这个问题变得更加紧迫，以至于蘑菇种植者现在正在努力 获得他们所需的劳动力，并预测在可预见的未来收割机的短缺。 这项研究的目的是开发一种机器人收割解决方案，可以解决劳动的根本原因。 蘑菇行业面临的全面短缺，导致蘑菇产量大幅减少， 降低生产成本，提高加拿大在农业机器人领域的全球竞争力。

The mushroom growing industry is valued at over $100 billion per annum worldwide according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. All types of mushrooms destined for the fresh market are currently harvested by hand. The labour cost for harvesting mushrooms accounts for more than 30% of the total production cost. The manual harvesting of mushrooms is a labour intensive process and costs this industry millions in revenue losses. In addition to the direct cost of harvesting, the recruitment and retention of skilled workers for manual harvesting of mushrooms is a real challenge as well. On average, it takes about 24 months of training for a worker to become an expert harvester. Recent changes in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in Canada have made the problem even more pressing to the point that mushroom farmers are now struggling to acquire the labour force they need and predict the shortage of harvesters for the foreseeable future. The aim of this research is to develop a robotic harvesting solution that can address the root cause of the labour shortages faced by mushroom industry across the board, contribute to a significant reduction in the mushroom production cost, and increase Canada's global competitiveness in the field of agricultural robotics.