Meet Thorvald: The helpful robot farmer who may become the strawberry farmer's best friend. Among Thorvald’s many talents is preventing mildew from damaging plants without the need for pesticides
2016 was a crisis year for Norwegian strawberry producers as major parts of the crop were lost due to fungal infections.
In time, Thorvald the agricultural robot may become instrumental in the prevention of fungal infection without the need for pesticides. Thorvald can monitor the strawberry fields, constantly watch for attacks from fungi and mites, treat the plants without recourse to pesticides and even help with harvesting.
International publicity
In fact, the many ways in which Thorvald can assist farmers have recently generated substantial international media coverage as British media have speculated that Thorvald, in the long term, may be able to plug a post-Brexit labour crisis.
«Meet Thorvald, a member of a new generation of farm robots being readied to plug a labour shortage on Britain’s farms that may soon be exacerbated by Brexit,» the Financial Times writes (behind paywall).
The latest crop of robots heads for the fields, The Times reports (behind paywall). Mass produced Thorvald farm robots could replace human workers, The Daily Mail claims.
Tempoet i digitalisering og teknologiutvikling akselerer og nye løsninger forandrer verden. I artikkelserien "Digital kraft", som blant annet publiseres hos Forskning.no, ser vi på hvordan dette endrer forskjellige fagområder og gjør det mulig å løse globale og lokale utfordringer på nye måter.
