Making the case for robotic cotton pickers

Despite the fact that robotic machinery is currently being used in many other industries, robotic cotton pickers remain an unexplored technology that could substantially improve cotton yields and profit, says Janine Ryan.

- Janine Ryan.

Cotton is a major crop worldwide, and prior to the invention of the cotton harvester, it was a labour-intensive crop. And while mechanisation meant farmers’ need for manual labour decreased, their harvesting problems didn’t go away.

Cotton is harvested at the end of the growing season, and the plants mature at different times. To ensure maximum quality, the crop is harvested when around 60% of the bolls have defoliated and opened, say researchers Hussein Gharakhani et al (2022). This means the fibre in the bolls that open before the rest are exposed to the elements, and the longer they are, the lower the quality of the cotton becomes.

Moreover, say the researchers, high-capacity harvesters are heavy, and this can lead to soil compaction, making planting more labour-intensive and reducing the soil’s potential.

They also write that the high cost of harvesters requires a minimum of 600ha to 800ha of cotton available to harvest to justify the investment in a single machine. Thus, they argue that smaller, robotic machines may be the answer to farmers’ harvesting challenges.

BENEFITS

Gharakhani et al say that although robotic cotton harvesters aren’t as fast as large mechanical harvesters, they could be advantageous in terms of lower equipment and maintenance costs. They also have potential for selective picking, allowing for flexible harvesting windows, as the robots can go to the fields throughout the season to pick the fibre as the boll opens. This will increase fibre quality and yield, leading to greater profits for farmers.