Hi-tech robots could revolutionise farming

AP Television Salinas, California - 23 May 2013 1. Pan across researcher following "Lettuce Bot" thinning lettuce field 2. Tracking shot of feet, as researcher walks in field behind robot 3. Wide of "Lettuce Bot" being pulled by tractor in field 4. Tracking shot of machine passing over rows of lettuce buds 5. Mid of Jorge Heraud, Chief Executive Officer, Blue River Technology (in foreground) looking at lettuce buds, machinery in background 6. Close-up of lettuce buds 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jorge Heraud, Chief Executive Officer, Blue River Technology: "So thinning is an operation where some plants are removed to give space for these other plants. And the nice thing about Lettuce Bot is that it does it automatically, it does it very fast, and it does it in a better way, with more information than a human can." 8. Mid of researcher standing on side of tractor 9. Mid of researcher using laptop computer 10. Close-up of computer screen showing lettuce bud images 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jorge Heraud, Chief Executive Officer, Blue River Technology: "So what we can do is, with this technology, you can look at every plant and do things more precisely. We can more precisely fertilise. We can more precisely apply chemicals and only to the plants that need it. We can kill weeds without having to blanket spray things. We can gather information. The possibilities are limitless, and what we can do is increase yield." 12. Wide of workers harvesting romaine lettuce 13. Mid of workers cutting and bagging lettuce 14. Tilt up of worker bagging lettuce 15. Mid of workers harvesting and bagging lettuce 16. Wide of Ron Yokota, Farm manager, Tanimura & Antle, walking with Heraud 17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ron Yokota, Farm manager, Tanimura and Antle: "Labour is getting more difficult to find, and having something automated like this can reduce the amount of people we need to do a field. It could also hopefully over the long term, it could reduce costs and increase quality." 18. Close-up of Yokota driving through lettuce fields, filmed inside moving vehicle 19. Close-up of Yokota cutting open lettuce head 20. SOUNDBITE: Ron Yokota, Farm manager, Tanimura and Antle: "In terms of replacing labour, there's quite a bit of other jobs that could be done with mechanical devices such as harvesting. We harvest pretty much everything by hand right now." AP Television Mountain View, California - 13 May 2013 21. Mid of Heraud walking into Blue River Technology offices 22. Mid of Heraud in Silicon Valley workshop 23. Close-up of finger pointing at painted lettuce buds on floor 24. Wide of Heraud demonstrating how to thin lettuce with hoe 25. Close-up of hoe being demonstrated 26. SOUNDBITE: Jorge Heraud, Chief Executive Officer, Blue River Technology: "Our machine, what it does is looks at the plants, looks them down using a camera and then it processes the images and it figures out where the plants are. And then decides which plants it should keep and which plants it should kill." 27. Mid of Heraud with software programmer in office 28. Close-up of images of lettuce buds on computer screen 29. Mid of programmer looking at computer screen 30. SOUNDBITE: Jorge Heraud, Chief Executive Officer, Blue River Technology: "That's what robots and automation is really good at it. They can take repetitive tasks that are just very boring and simple for a human to do and do it effectively, fast and accurately." AP Television Salinas, California - 23 May 2013 31. Mid of researcher lowering "Lettuce Bot" to ground, on back of tractor 32. Wide of researchers following "Lettuce Bot" in field 33. Mid of researchers walking behind "Lettuce Bot" 34. Mid of researcher inspecting lettuce buds 35. Close-up of hand touching buds You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/22032d19cdd6f98fa4744ac47491f4b3 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork