22.9.94

Business is mushrooming for robots 

By David Brown, Agriculture Correspondent

A ROBOT which could threaten thousands of jobs in Britain's commercial mushroom-picking industry has been developed by Government-funded engineers. The machine, which can pick the relatively fragile mushrooms without damaging them is part of a programme designed to save the £300 million a year industry from collapse in the face of competition from abroad.

More than £200,000 has been spent on design and development work which is nearing completion at the Silsoe Research Institute, near Bedford. When the robot enters service, probably in two years, mushroom farmers will be able to replace five out of every six pickers employed in the industry. Dr John Chisholm, head of bio-engineering at Silsoe, said that the robot, which uses a television camera to "see", could work all day. It could identify mushrooms which are ripe and reject damaged ones. 

A mechanical arm gently bends and twists the stalks to loosen them from their beds of compost. A suction cup lifts the mushrooms clear for packing which will also be done automatically.

Dr Chisholm said: "Competition from abroad is so fierce that British growers will lose out if they do not adjust to modern technology. It will be a question of using the robots to save some of the labour force - or losing all the labour because there will be no mushroom industry." Early versions had a 57 per cent success rate.

"We have improved this considerably and are confident of achieving 80-90 per cent success," said Dr Chisholm. The aim was to collect undamaged mushrooms - essential for supermarkets.