This advanced strawberry-picking robot is able to pick individual strawberries right off the plant. Not only that, this little robot can distinguish the red, ripe strawberries and pick only those that are ready.
(Strawberry-picking robot video)
It uses two cameras to determine the location of the strawberry in three dimensions, and then goes after it. It's not one of those sluggish robots, either; it can pick a berry every nine seconds.
And best of all, it doesn't eat any of the berries, unlike myself and the members of my family when we go strawberry picking.
Science fiction buffs remember R2D2 and C3PO, of course; but although these robots were purchased for agricultural use, that was not their primary function (as C3PO might put it). The robot gardening crab from William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer is a good example of an elegantly functional "ag robot."
Fans of the 1972 movie Silent Running will also remember (as Peter Jacobs did in the comments) that Bruce Dern took tended his garden with the help of robots.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'