Awareness Title
Images
Description
One day “Users’ Awareness Workshop on “Vision Guided AI Enabled Robotic Apple Harvester” was organized by Division of Food Science and Technology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K), Shalimar, Srinagar and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata in association with ICAR-Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (ICAR-CIPHET), Ludhiana and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur sponsored by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India on 19th October, 2022 at SKUAST-K, Shalimar, Srinagar. The aim of the workshop was to aware the apple growers, Controlled Atmosphere (CA) store owners and related stake holders regarding AI based robotic apple harvester being fabricated under MeitY sponsored project “Vision Guided AI Enabled Robotic Apple Harvester”. As many as 50 participants comprising of scientists of MeitY, SKUAST-K, C-DAC Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur, CIPHET Ludhiana, CA store owners and high-density apple orchardists participated in the programme. The august gathering was welcomed by Dr. A. H. Mughal, Associate Director Research, SKUAST-K who during his welcome address highlighted the need of robotic apple harvester for the benefit of farming community. Smt. Sunita Verma, Scientist G & Group Coordinator, R&D in Electronics Group, MeitY was the chief guest of the event. In her address, she highlighted the importance of Vision Guided AI Enabled Robotic Apple Harvester. She further congratulated the organizers for conducting such awareness workshop. Dr. Om Krishan Singh, Joint Director, MeitY and Shri Tara Shankar, Consultant, MeitY graced the workshop as guest of honour. They appreciated the efforts of SKUAST-K and C-DAC Kolkata for organizing such a workshop. Dr. Hena Ray, Joint Director, C-DAC, Kolkata and Dr. Rajendra Machavaram, Associate Professor, IIT Kharagpur gave a detailed power-point presentation on progress made under the project. Mr. Alokesh Ghosh, Associate Director and Group Head, AEE Gr., C-DAC Kolkata emphasized in his speech that such prototypes may prove handy in enhancing the shelf-life of the apples besides reducing the harvesting losses and labour component involved. Prof. (Dr.) S. Z. Hussain, Head, Division of FST, SKUAST-K appraised the gathering about the harvesting and post-harvest losses of apples in J&K. A detailed interactive session with farmers and CA store owners was also held with regard to issues related to operation of robotic apple harvester in apple orchards. Through this meet the need of multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary Research & Development approach has been emerged for prosperity of nation.