Medjool Date Thinning

Human Factors Engineering

Medjool Date Thinning

What does it take for a human to collaborate with a robotic Medjool date thinning system (RDTS)?

Medjool date palm tree is critical for date farmers in increasing the harvest's economic value. Manual thinning of a single tree can take one to several hours. The objectives of the work are to explore date growers' natural thinning related decision making, and to develop a roadmap to support robotic Medjool date thinning system (RDTS, work in progress) human-robot interaction research.

Using Function Allocation Methods to Inform Research Roadmaps: A Human-Robot Interaction Case Study for Medjool Date Thinning

The objective of the work is to develop a roadmap to support robotic Medjool date thinning system (RDTS) human-robot interaction research. The focus of the work relates to the allocation of functions among the human operator and the envisioned RDTS. By considering the current status and the abstraction hierarchy, we developed four technically possible function allocation options. This refined roadmap will be used to align researchers' and developers' goals to ensure a better RDTS research outcome.

Partners:

Prof. Ellen Bass, Drexel University, PL, USA

Venture collaboration:

Prof. Avital Bechar, Agriculture Research Organization – Volcani Center (Coordinator)

Prof. Sigal Berman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Dr. Yossi Yovel, Tel-Aviv University

Dr. Zeev Schmilovitch, Agriculture Research Organization – Volcani Center

Dr. Yuval Cohen, Agriculture Research Organization – Volcani Center

Avi Sadowsky, Southern Arava R&D

Funds:

Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Plants Production & Marketing Board, Grant 20-07-0018

The Decision Making Process of Date Thinning

Making a critical, one-way, decision, is usually not easy. Every year Date farmers have to decide harvest is marked by a limited season of thinning dates is exactly that.

Can we support this decision with data science? A master's program is set to investigate it.

Lab members:

Or Inbary, MA candidate in Social Psychology and Data Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Partners:

Yuval Cohen, Agriculture Research Organization – Volcani Center

Prof. Tal Oron-Gilad, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev