Transcript 0:00 [on-hold music] Talk to me. Information, news and entertainment on demand. WWestRadio.com. 0:10 [on-hold music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world with your host, Peggy Smedley. [on-hold music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 0:26 As a young boy, my next guest did not want to go to school, but now as an adult, never wants to leave. 0:34 He has degrees in civil engineering, computer engineering, remote sensing, agricultural engineering, and human computer interaction. 0:43 In two thousand and ten, he joined Washington State University, where he leads a strong research program in agricultural automation with a particular emphasis on machine vision and sensing technologies for agricultural automation and robotics. 1:00 But recently, he earned the honor of as a two thousand and-- twenty nineteen pioneer by our very own Connected World magazine. 1:08 Please join me in melk- welcoming Manuj Karki, who is the associate professor at Washington State University. Manuj, welcome to the show. Thank you, Peggy. Pleasure to be here. 1:22 Well, you know, first of all, I want to congratulate you on being named the twenty nineteen pioneer. Your work in agricultural robotics, researching machines to automate farming automations is absolutely awesome. 1:35 I, I wanted to congratulate you first of all for that. Thank you very much. It's really an honor to be with all outstanding scholars from around the country. Well, you've earned that. 1:47 And so I really want to talk to you about why you decided to choose this particular field for research and development, and, and actually, what are your motivations? 1:57 Because there's really some great things you're doing and, and I'm really excited for you to tell our listeners a little bit about it. Thank you very much. 2:06 That's a very important question, and there are a few aspects of it. 2:11 First of all, uh, let's talk about a simple fact, which is that in the next twenty, thirty years, we'd have two to three billion more people in this world. 2:21 And with the increasing affluence of people from Africa and Asia and other parts of the world, uh, we will have demand for food, fiber, and fuel increased by at least 2:36 twice as much as what we consume today in the next twenty, thirty years. 2:41 And to meet that demand is not easy, particularly because of decreasing availability of farming resources, whether that be land, water, labor, fertilizers, or anything that goes into farming. 2:57 That's why it is very important to develop technologies that would be able to apply right amount of input at right time and right location so that we can produce more better quality food, fiber, and fuel while consum-consuming as little resources as possible. 3:18 That's one of the biggest driver of working in developing agricultural automation and robotics solutions for farming. 3:27 The next aspect of it is that I believe, at, at least philosophically, that human being deserved better than working in farms, like in hundred and ten degrees sun picking apples or pruning grapevines in cold winter days. 3:47 We deserve better. 3:48 And with technology, with all the advancement in artificial intelligence, uh, new learning techniques like deep learning, I think we have capability now to, to make farming completely automated so that, uh, human, uh, workers would have better working environment. 4:05 The final, uh, aspect of it, certainly there are more, but at least one major aspect of it is my own background. Farming is very dear to me. 4:15 I grew up, uh, in a small farm working as a kind of subsistence farmer, uh, raising different types of crops and animals. 4:25 And again, farming is always very near and dear to me, and I would like to continue to be working in this area, making some impact for, uh, humanity. But let me ask you this question. 4:36 I-- and, and, and I love the points that you raised, but I assume there are other researchers or tech firms working in the area that you are in, and I've actually interviewed some of them. 4:46 Talk about what makes what you're doing and the work you're doing unique. And I know listeners can actually look, um, and, and see the, the videos that we have and that you've put up about what you're doing. 4:58 But explain to our listeners what you're doing that is so unique. And you talk about the strain on human workers. But really explain that because it really is very intriguing. 5:10 First of all, start with the simple fact that, uh, there are about eighteen billion apples picked in the state of Washington alone every year. 5:20 That means there are eighteen billion movement of human hand every year just in Washington to pick apples. 5:28 That's a lot of physical work that we want to, again, have machines do it so that human, uh, being are involved in more creative, um, more, um, uh, the work that, that makes more impact than just, uh, hard physical labor. 5:45 And as you mentioned, there are a lot of efforts going on currently within the public institutions as well as private, um, enterprise developing machines and solutions to replace this kind of hard work, uh, by machines, um, again, to provide better working environment for workers, whether that be supervising machines or fixingFixing them when there is a problem. 6:11 Now, I'm in the mix of, uh, uh, this all, uh, research and development activities going around, um, in the world. 6:19 What makes our work, uh, a little more unique and impactful is that we work at the interface between biology and physical sciences, whether that be engineering or technology. 6:33 What does that mean is that in our research program, we try to understand how the crops are grown, how the fruit is, um, uh, what kind of varieties and variabilities are there in the fruit and other crops, and how biological sciences, such as horticulture and crop science, are, um, improving their understanding so that these canopies or crop, uh, systems are different now than, than in the past, and how we can use these advancements to make the robotic operations easier. 7:13 For example, talk about apple trees. Until even ten years ago, they used to be bigger and bulkier, like a Christmas tree, um, like shape, and a lot of fruit would be inside the canopy. 7:26 And no matter how intelligent a robot is, picking a fruit that is blocked by branches or leaves is not easy. But in recent years, uh, horticulturists have developed trees that are what we call two-dimensional. 7:41 We also call them fruiting wall trees, where we can very easily access and pick fruit using robots. 7:48 So our-- Again, our focus is on understanding the fundamentals of biology and develop a system solution that is not just a, a robotic approach, but it includes horticulture, crop science, socioeconomic analysis, as well as engineering analysis, so that we have a system that is more robust, more, more efficient, and cost effective. 8:13 Um, and I believe that kind of contribution is, uh, quite unique to our program. Briefly, we've got just about a minute left. A lot of people fear losing their jobs. 8:25 Will this help or hurt when we think about jobs being lost? 'Cause that's everybody's fear when we talk about robotics. 8:33 [laughs] Very good question, and this is the kind of question I am always, uh, facing, quite frequently facing when I'm talking to a reporter or in other settings. Um, this is a very genuine question. 8:46 Uh, there are two aspects. First, we're not trying to replace, uh, workers. Rather, we're trying to fill the gap of not having enough labor in farming right now. 8:57 Um, just as an example, there are a lot of farmers who are not picking their fruit or vegetable, a substantial amount of it every year, because they just cannot find enough people to pick those or, or harvest those crops. 9:12 Now, moving beyond, again, philosophically, I would like to make farming completely automated so that human operators or human workers are, uh, working in more skilled and in more or better working environment. 9:30 Uh, for example, again, supervising machines and fixing them when there is a challenge, or maybe working in factories to produce new machines, um, rather than, again, picking apples and doing hard work in the field. 9:43 Let me finish this, this off by saying that agricultural mechanization, automation, and robotics would allow us to go beyond very hard work. Minush, we're out of time. Minush, we're out of time. 9:56 Well, thank you very much. Yeah. But come back and let's, let's, let's have-- continue this conversation. Hey, listeners, we're out of time. Remember, we broadcast live every Tuesday, twelve PM Central. 10:05 Tweet at us at ConnectedWMag. Have an awesome week, 'cause remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcast voice of IoT and relevant technology. [upbeat music] With great technology comes great responsibility. 10:21 Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 10:29 Go to Peggy_Smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for Peggy_Smedley to follow her today. 10:44 [upbeat music] Video consumption is on the rise. So to reach this audience, Constructek Magazine created Constructek TV. 10:56 Constructek TV helps construction professionals leverage emerging solutions to better their business. Tune in to constructek.tv to catch the latest show on the first and third Tuesday of each month. 11:07 Like, view, and subscribe to constructek.tv, bringing dynamic video to construction. [upbeat music] Signal to noise, an electronic term with new relevance on the internet. 11:22 Connected World Media cuts through the noise of data overload and finds you the signal of important information. Information that will keep you current and aware of context in the Internet of Things. 11:33 Peggy Smedley shares her insights on The Peggy Smedley Show and in Connected World Magazine, all online at connectedworld.com. Stay current and competitive at connectedworld.com [upbeat music] 11:46 Besides the hard work of our incredible WS Radio staff that has decades of experience in the broadcast industry, one of the reasons WS Radio sounds so good is we use Orban technology. We are not alone. 11:58 Over fifty thousand professional broadcasters can't be wrong. From radio, TV, streaming to hardware and software, Orban has been supplying the broadcast industry for nearly thirty years. 12:09 Great customer service and continued R&D separates Orban from the rest. Learn more at orban.com.Looking to be a successful entrepreneur? 12:19 The virtual assistant industry continues to be a top choice for those looking to start their own business. The problem can be how to become a virtual assistant. 12:27 Many turn to the Bible of the VA industry, the book Virtual Assistant: The Series, and it's the perfect guide for office managers, executive assistants, and other administrative professionals looking to make the transition from employee to successful business owner. 12:42 Go to vatheseries.com to get your copy today. Education. Industry experts. Back to the basics. Is your company using the Internet of Things to its fullest potential? 12:53 Enlist the Pegi Smedley Institute and its team of experts to create a customized plan for how to apply the IoT to your specific needs. 13:01 Learn everything you need to know to achieve tangible business outcomes in today's digital economy. Contact us at six three zero nine three three zero eight four four. 13:10 At six three zero nine three three zero eight four four or visit learnatiot.com. You may have heard me brag about Progressive Medical Center and just how much they've helped me with my health. And Dr. 13:22 Gulley, one thing that you've helped so many people with is migraines. 13:26 Unfortunately, there are millions and millions of Americans who are suffering with migraines and headaches, and they're debilitating because it affects the quality of their life and they cannot function properly. 13:34 At Progressive, we get the root cause because we understand that migraines could be caused by nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, believe it or not, delayed food sensitivities. Ooh. 13:43 And once we determine what the real reason is, we put a plan of action together with medication that we get them off slowly, and we put them on a all-natural approach, and the results are amazing. Incredible. 13:53 I mean, there are so many people that can say they don't live their lives with migraines anymore thanks to Progressive Medical Center. 13:59 And that's what's exciting and rewarding to us as physicians because we help our patients take control of their health, and that's why they're living well. Why don't you get ahold of Progressive Medical Center today? 14:07 Don't live in pain. Don't have migraines anymore. Just go to their website, progressivemedicalcenter.com. This is your life, live it well. You take your smartphone almost everywhere you go. 14:20 Now, wsradio.com can be there too. Search WS Radio in the Play Store for your Android devices or iTunes for Apple and download the WS Radio application. 14:34 Wsradio.com, on your phone and in your ear everywhere you go. Download the WS Radio application. Do it now. It's very easy. Wsradio.com. [outro jingle] Thank you for listening to WS Radio. 14:51 Improve your business and your life with useful information from experts and thought leaders. WS Radio is radio with ROI. 15:01 [outro jingle]
