title: Identification and manipulation of lily bulbs for an automated lily bulb planting system

authors: Venter, Gerhard Meyer

subjects: Agriculture Automation

abstract: Automation in agriculture is growing year by year. The goal of automating processes is to provide inexpensive and more effective solutions for everyday problems present in the industry. Automation in agriculture adds value to the product and in turn, to the farmer's infrastructure. This automation also aims to provide higher skill labour for workers that the automation processes substitute.  Using machine vision as a means of automating processes is very common in factory environments and is being adapted for the external agriculture environments (i.e. automated detection for produce harvesting).

Machine vision and manipulation techniques for a lily bulb plantation were presented. The techniques were investigated to determine the feasibility of using an autonomous, machine vision based approach to manipulate and plant lily bulbs from a provided source, to pre-augered holes produced by a pre-defined autonomous platform.

The machine vision approach involved taking a top down image of the bulbs and identifying the head positions and what orientation they were facing relative to their root structures. This was achieved using various standard machine vision techniques like segmenting using global thresholding and identification of heads using the Hough circular transform. The investigated manipulation method involved applying the above mentioned vision system to a standard ABB IRB-120 universal manipulator with a three bellow suction gripper to pick up the detected bulbs and manipulate the bulbs in the orientation perceived by the vision system.

It was found that the machine vision algorithm provided a 75 per cent success rate when providing an optimal region of interest within the bulbs head. The success rate is a considerably successful result as the detection algorithm not only needed to detect the location of the bulbs, but the centroid of its head and also determine the approximate orientation relative to each samples individual root structure. The manipulation results showed that the engagement of the suction gripper was a significant component of failure during testing. The observed success rate was at 41 per cent. This high failure rate means that further improvements should be made before a successful end effector and manipulation pair would be achieved. Improving suction rate or developing a specialized gripper for the specific amorphous bulbs would have to be investigated further before there is confirmation of a satisfactory solution for the Automated Lily Planter. Further work could be done to improve the algorithm and fine-tune the output provided. Improvements could be made to optimise the detection algorithm like improved lighting and better contrast between the bulbs colour gradient and that of the platform's background. Further development on the manipulators approach should also be conducted for validation.

text: Identification and manipulation of lily bulbs for an automated lily bulb planting system Automation in agriculture is growing year by year. The goal of automating processes is to provide inexpensive and more effective solutions for everyday problems present in the industry. Automation in agriculture adds value to the product and in turn, to the farmer's infrastructure. This automation also aims to provide higher skill labour for workers that the automation processes substitute.  Using machine vision as a means of automating processes is very common in factory environments and is being adapted for the external agriculture environments (i.e. automated detection for produce harvesting).

Machine vision and manipulation techniques for a lily bulb plantation were presented. The techniques were investigated to determine the feasibility of using an autonomous, machine vision based approach to manipulate and plant lily bulbs from a provided source, to pre-augered holes produced by a pre-defined autonomous platform.

The machine vision approach involved taking a top down image of the bulbs and identifying the head positions and what orientation they were facing relative to their root structures. This was achieved using various standard machine vision techniques like segmenting using global thresholding and identification of heads using the Hough circular transform. The investigated manipulation method involved applying the above mentioned vision system to a standard ABB IRB-120 universal manipulator with a three bellow suction gripper to pick up the detected bulbs and manipulate the bulbs in the orientation perceived by the vision system.

It was found that the machine vision algorithm provided a 75 per cent success rate when providing an optimal region of interest within the bulbs head. The success rate is a considerably successful result as the detection algorithm not only needed to detect the location of the bulbs, but the centroid of its head and also determine the approximate orientation relative to each samples individual root structure. The manipulation results showed that the engagement of the suction gripper was a significant component of failure during testing. The observed success rate was at 41 per cent. This high failure rate means that further improvements should be made before a successful end effector and manipulation pair would be achieved. Improving suction rate or developing a specialized gripper for the specific amorphous bulbs would have to be investigated further before there is confirmation of a satisfactory solution for the Automated Lily Planter. Further work could be done to improve the algorithm and fine-tune the output provided. Improvements could be made to optimise the detection algorithm like improved lighting and better contrast between the bulbs colour gradient and that of the platform's background. Further development on the manipulators approach should also be conducted for validation.

year: 2019

title: New Zealand jobs, 1976 - 1996: A demographic accounting

authors: Honey, Jeff

subjects: population

abstract: Over the last decade or so New Zealand has been through an era of radical political, economic, social and demographic change. In part this has been driven by economic restructuring. But in part, this had been an acceleration of a long-term industrial transformation, which had been a part of New Zealand culture for some time (Thompson 1985). This has taken the form of a long-term shift of employment out of the secondary sector and into the tertiary sector industries. Moreover, in the post-war period there has been a gradual further decline in the proportion of jobs in the primary sectors despite continuous economic improvements of agricultural activities. This is demonstrated proportionately more in terms of its contribution to exports and to the distribution of Gross Domestic Production across sectors, than in high percentages of the labour force in the primary sector. In this and other ways, New Zealand has been subject to the structural changes experienced by other developed countries. The major difference has been the speed of the policy-driven restructuring over the last decade in New Zealand.

This paper turns to some basic accounting methods to analyse increases and decreases in job numbers by industrial sector between 1976 and 1996. Analysis by gender, ethnicity and broad age groups will provide a more detailed picture of the major movements. Secondly, in order to assess whether there are gaps between employment and supply, these increases and decreases will be compared with data which indicate levels of "demographic supply". These data give, as it were, an "expected" figure for change in the numbers in each category. and this can be compared with the "observed" figures.

Demographic supply is defined here as the percentage growth between the periods analysed in the population at working ages (15-64 years). This paper also looks at the proportionate shifts between censuses in the number of workers by age, gender and ethnicity in a particular industry or broad sector. This analysis is strengthened by comparing the observed "gains and losses" which might have been expected through natural growth and attrition. What these data imply, therefore, is whether or not the labour market is dysfunctional in the way it can respond to a combination of gains and losses because of under- and over-supply of workers, plus the absorptive capacity of a given segment of the labour market.

text: New Zealand jobs, 1976 - 1996: A demographic accounting Over the last decade or so New Zealand has been through an era of radical political, economic, social and demographic change. In part this has been driven by economic restructuring. But in part, this had been an acceleration of a long-term industrial transformation, which had been a part of New Zealand culture for some time (Thompson 1985). This has taken the form of a long-term shift of employment out of the secondary sector and into the tertiary sector industries. Moreover, in the post-war period there has been a gradual further decline in the proportion of jobs in the primary sectors despite continuous economic improvements of agricultural activities. This is demonstrated proportionately more in terms of its contribution to exports and to the distribution of Gross Domestic Production across sectors, than in high percentages of the labour force in the primary sector. In this and other ways, New Zealand has been subject to the structural changes experienced by other developed countries. The major difference has been the speed of the policy-driven restructuring over the last decade in New Zealand.

This paper turns to some basic accounting methods to analyse increases and decreases in job numbers by industrial sector between 1976 and 1996. Analysis by gender, ethnicity and broad age groups will provide a more detailed picture of the major movements. Secondly, in order to assess whether there are gaps between employment and supply, these increases and decreases will be compared with data which indicate levels of "demographic supply". These data give, as it were, an "expected" figure for change in the numbers in each category. and this can be compared with the "observed" figures.

Demographic supply is defined here as the percentage growth between the periods analysed in the population at working ages (15-64 years). This paper also looks at the proportionate shifts between censuses in the number of workers by age, gender and ethnicity in a particular industry or broad sector. This analysis is strengthened by comparing the observed "gains and losses" which might have been expected through natural growth and attrition. What these data imply, therefore, is whether or not the labour market is dysfunctional in the way it can respond to a combination of gains and losses because of under- and over-supply of workers, plus the absorptive capacity of a given segment of the labour market.

year: 2001-09

title: He huringa āhuarangi, he huringa ao: A changing climate, a changing world

authors: Awatere, S

subjects: climate change adaptation

abstract: Iwi/hapū (tribe/subtribe) governance institutions are increasingly asserting their rangatiratanga (autonomy) to manage climate change risks and meet the well-being of whānau (family)/ hapū/iwi. Howevere, there is a shortange of specific guidance for whānau/hapū/iwi with respect to climate change adaptation and mitigation. We provide a commentary about risk and uncertainty, knowledge gaps, and options for climate change mitigation and adaptation for whānau/hapū/iwi.

text: He huringa āhuarangi, he huringa ao: A changing climate, a changing world Iwi/hapū (tribe/subtribe) governance institutions are increasingly asserting their rangatiratanga (autonomy) to manage climate change risks and meet the well-being of whānau (family)/ hapū/iwi. Howevere, there is a shortange of specific guidance for whānau/hapū/iwi with respect to climate change adaptation and mitigation. We provide a commentary about risk and uncertainty, knowledge gaps, and options for climate change mitigation and adaptation for whānau/hapū/iwi.

year: 2021-10