It moves along the tunnels of fruit, its arm working tirelessly amongst the foliage. Dozens of cameras built into the machine take 360-degree images of the strawberries, as it decides which ones to pick according to mass, ripeness, and quality.

Joao squints into an iPad, checking for faults like damaged or missed fruit. “The whole system is connected to the internet, so we can monitor the performance of the robot through the tablet,” he explains.

Joao is from Timor-Leste and has been in Tasmania for 5 months under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. He started at Burlington Berries as a raspberry picker but soon joined the robot team as a supervisor. For him, being on the cutting edge of digital farming is an exciting opportunity.

“In Timor-Leste, the agricultural system is still really traditional and technology like this is very new for us, so working with robots for the first time is something I’m very excited about,” he said.

The robots are part of a collaboration between Burlington Berries and a UK-based start-up Dogtooth Technologies, which is working to find a solution to labour shortages during harvests. In Tasmania, the trial began in 2017 with just 5 robots but has now grown to 16.

Eva Thilderkvist, Site Manager at Burlington Berries for Dogtooth Technologies, has been training a team of 3 Timorese workers to supervise, maintain and operate the robots. She said despite some initial language barriers, the PALM scheme workers were quick to pick up the skills.

“Before we put them in the field, we allowed the Timorese workers to walk with the robots, like taking a dog for a walk, so they could get used to how the robots moved. Now some of the team are happy to drive 2 at a time.”

 

'The team has figured it all out themselves'

In the morning, Joao and his crew take the robots out of the charging containers, disconnect them from the charger and take them into the field. They use the tablets to connect them to the wi-fi and the robots can then move autonomously, while the workers assess their performance through the tablets.

“Together with Joao we built a wi-fi network, so all the robots, all the devices, anything connected to that network can talk to each other,” Eva said.

“The team has figured it all out themselves, so not only can I go into the office and watch what the robots are doing remotely, because it all gets uploaded to the cloud, but I can also talk back.

“I can see exactly how many berries the robots have picked. If they’re missing berries, I might be able to say ‘Joao, I can see that this robot is missing a lot of berries. Maybe you need to check it.’ And then he can go and have a look and report back to me.

“He might say that the picking tongs have broken, for example, and they can then replace that. This is another thing that the team has learned to do, they can mechanically change out certain components on the robots that we call consumables, that is components that sometimes break that we can replace.”

 

Learning new digital skills while supporting their families

 

For Joao and the other Timorese workers operating the berry picking robots, the PALM scheme is not only providing an opportunity to learn new digital skills but it’s also helping support their families back home.

“For me, my focus is on my children’s study and school,” Joao said. “I have 5 kids. My first daughter is 21 years old and is studying political science and international relations at university in Portugal. She really needs a lot of money each month, so I’m able to support her. My second daughter is also at university in Timor-Leste and studying to be a doctor.

“This program is really helping people in Timor-Leste where the minimum wage is only $A135 a month and the cost of living is high. The minimum wage here is good and so it’s a good opportunity for Timorese people to come and work here. I hope more people from Timor-Leste can come and work in Australia.”