Ohad Boaz, left, and Yanir Ariav of Blue White Robotics, an Israeli firm that has change into lively in California everlasting crops, did a short presentation in asserting the FIRA USA occasion.
Representatives of the International Forum of Agricultural Robotics (FIRA), Western Growers, and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) this week introduced that the primary FIRA occasion to be held in the U.S. is slated for Fresno, CA, in October.
FIRA USA 2022 will carry collectively specialty crop growers, robotic producers, industrials, teachers, technologists, startups and traders for three days of problem-solving, resolution making, and planning to use know-how to California agriculture. Why Fresno?
Ashley Swearengin, President and CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation, and a former mayor of the town, put it this fashion: “This place is the the food capital of the nation and, we believe, the world.”
FIRA was first held in France in 2015. European specialty crop growers confronted labor shortages effectively earlier than their U.S. counterparts, inflicting them to look into robotics.
“In France there is a lot more use of digital agriculture than in the U.S.,” FIRA Co-Director Gwendoline Legrand says.
It’s excessive time that U.S. specialty crop growers have been capable of avail themselves of such a convention, Gabriel Youtsey, UC ANR Chief Innovation Officer says. Holding the convention in Fresno, a middle of specialty agriculture, is ideal for the “cross-pollenation” mandatory between farming and robotics.
“The future is here, ” he says of robots in the sphere. “These things are here now.”
Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation at Western Growers, says 75% of specialty ag robotics firms are operating on their very own cash or what they elevate via family and friends. They want further monetary backing to get off the bottom.
“All of these companies are very, very early,” he says. “That’s why the conversations (between growers and robotics developers) need to happen.”
FIRA USA 2022 will likely be held Oct. 18-20. The occasion will function discipline demos and analysis undertaking displays on autonomous farming and agricultural robotics options, and can present very important networking time for farmers, robotic producers, and scientists. In addition, the occasion is anticipated to draw many college students and researchers.
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First International Agricultural Robotics Conference in U.S. Set for Fall