Jakarta - As an important industrial raw material, natural rubber has a wide range of uses. However, due to the high labor intensity in the rubber tapping process, irregular working hours, and the prevalence of occupational diseases, many natural rubber producing countries, including China, are facing a growing labor shortage.
"The development of rubber tapping robots aims to address the challenges posed by the dwindling number of rubber farmers," said Cao Jianhua, deputy director of the Natural Rubber Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.
This mobile rubber tapping robot embodies the deep integration of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics technology, and natural rubber management techniques.The robot is equipped with a flexible robotic arm and, relying on a tracked mobile platform, can move freely in the middle of the rubber plantation.
The robot combines technologies such as adaptive terrain navigation, forest positioning and autonomous path planning. This enables precise control over tree cutting depth, peel thickness and trunk measurements, as well as adaptability to complex terrain.
At present, the robot's rubber tapping capacity can reach 80 percent of that of manual rubber tapping, showing good overall performance.In 2015, the Natural Rubber Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences formed a team to research the mechanical rubber tapping process. In recent years, the portable electric rubber tapping knife developed by the institute has been demonstrated in Indonesia, Thailand and 13 other major rubber-producing countries.
The institute's mobile rubber tapping machine has also been promoted. The successful development of a more advanced mobile rubber tapping robot represents China's significant breakthrough in the research and development of fully automated and intelligent rubber tapping equipment."We are the first to start research on rubber tapping robots and are in the forefront of this field globally," Cao said.