A Turkish cotton farmer has developed an innovative electric and autonomous field robot capable of potentially increasing cotton harvests by up to 20% on existing farms.

The inventor of Afara asserts that conventional self-propelled harvesters often leave between 5% and 20% of cotton yields on the plants due to inherent limitations in existing farm equipment, plant density on farms, and other factors.

The only viable method to harvest this remaining cotton is through manual labor, a strenuous, labor-intensive, and costly process.

Afara, the fully electric cotton pick robot, addresses this challenge by featuring four RGB cameras, two LiDAR sensors, and various ultrasonic sensors, Electrek reported.

These technologies enable the robot to detect leftover cotton, navigate obstacles, and perform tasks that larger harvesters, such as the 35-ton John Deere CP770, are too large to accomplish.

While the John Deere machine processes up to 12 rows of plants simultaneously, Afara handles two rows, collecting up to 200 kg of cotton in its onboard container.

Once the container is full, the robot autonomously navigates to a predetermined collection point, where human operators can unload the harvested cotton.

Written by B.C. Begley