Malaysia's robots to go on duty

Malaysia's robots to go on duty

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia will produce its first robots in two years to tap rubber and harvest oil palm, Bernama news agency reported yesterday.

The acute labor shortage in local plantations spurred the authorities to set up a 12 million ringgit (US$4.8 million) center to produce robots to do agricultural jobs shunned by choosy Malaysians, it quoted officials as saying.

Roslizar Mat Ali, director at the new Malaysian Center of Robotics and Industrial Automation, said scientists had the option of producing "walking robot" or machines traveling on a tree-to-tree circuit to tap rubber.

For oil palm estates, robots will be produced to collect oil palm bunches from trees and the ground for processing. Millions of dollars are currently lost in unpicked fruit bunches annually.