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.