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by cogman10 1477 days ago
Labor and machinery.

You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse. So, a lot of produce from greenhouses or vertical farms (etc) ends up with a manual harvesting step.

This is why you pretty much see greenhouses exclusively used for foods which would require that manual step anyways.
2 comments
DarylZero 1477 days ago
>You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse.

Sure you can. Just needs to be big enough.

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cupofpython 1477 days ago
we have AI based dancing robots now, maybe they can figure something out for this
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shagie 1477 days ago
Its an area of active development and research - https://youtu.be/5chk9Sory88

Note that this is an area that is rather specialized - a pepper picking robot isn't good for tomato picking or lettuce picking ( https://youtu.be/EFC3OvkVKaQ ). Compare that to the incredibly versatile human ( https://youtu.be/oxbJVqfIK1U ).

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cogman10 1477 days ago
I think it's possible the whole system could be automated. The problem really ends up being one of cost.

It's similar to the "burger flipper robot" problem. Possibility solvable, but also gonna be costly and buggy for v1 of the robot.

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