News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors: “Fruits such as strawberries and grapes, and green and yell ow vegetables such as asparagus and tomatoes, are delicate and prone to damage a s well as have high unit prices, compared with grain such as rice and wheat. Suc h delicate crops with high unit prices are harvested manually one by one to prev ent damage caused to the crops at the time of harvest. Therefore, harvesting, e. g., fruits and green and yellow vegetables, places a large physical burden on a producer, as compared with, e.g., grain that can be harvested efficiently on a l arge scale by using harvesting machines such as combine harvesters. The physical ly demanding harvesting operation involves difficulty in securing labor force. T he harvesting operation, therefore, tends to place an increased burden on a prod ucer. Thus, crop harvesting systems using a multi-joint robot arm are known.
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