China - Dateline : Recent

Storyline:
Intelligent robots assist tea picking in China

[Voice_over]

It's harvest season for tea farmers in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

This year, they're getting a helping hand from technology with a robotic tealeaf picking machine.

The robot's developer said with upgrades in image identification it's easier to determine which tea buds and leaves can be harvested.

[Sound_bite]

Wu Chuanyu, leader, agricultural robot research and development team:

"It can move freely like a human being and can discover the buds that are blocked. Therefore, the identification efficiency of our picking this year will be improved. When our robot moves over, it will basically pick all the buds that can be harvested."

[Voice_over]
To pick the tea buds quickly and gently, the robotic arms were made to be as flexible as human hands.

[Sound_bite]

Wu Chuanyu, leader, agricultural robot research and development team:

"It has a rotatable part at the end, with additional degrees in freedom of rotation. It is really like human hand and can approach the buds from different fixed angles. This is one of the reasons why we can improve the success rate of its picking this year."

[Voice_over]

China is the world's leading tea producer, exporter, and consumer.

Data from the China Tea Marketing Association shows that the country's spring tea production, which accounts for 40 percent of the total annual output, is expected to reach about 1.7 million tons this year, up 10 percent year on year.