There are several areas ripe for assisting employees, and they are the most labor intensive and hardest to replace: blossom thinning, pruning and small fruit removals. Research at the University of California, Merced’s AgAID Institute funded by USDA is using the agricultural knowledge of tree-trimming laborers to inform artificial intelligence models and eventually the robotic systems to cut the right stems for optimal growth. These small-scale, singular interventions can make a tedious, costly pass through a field more efficient.
