QUT: Call for medicinal cannabis producers to collaborate on development of an automated pruning system

Opportunity for

• Medicinal cannabis producers interested in participating in research and development in automated cultivation. 
• Site needs to be located within reasonable travel distance to Brisbane, Queensland.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge:

Pruning medicinal cannabis is a labour intensive process that can be costly and challenging. The development of an automated pruning system could potentially increase yield and reduce labour costs associated with medicinal cannabis cultivation.

Current opportunity:

Queensland Uuniversity of Technology (QUT) are looking to partner with medicinal cannabis producers who are interested in supporting research and development of automated cultivation technology. Whilst harvesting robots are being developed for a range of horticultural applications, such as fruit harvesting and weed eradication, application to growth of medicinal cannabis requires research and development to address the parameters and challenges that are specific to this production system. There is an opportunity to apply this tech to pruning, which is a labour-intensive process that has been shown to significantly improve yield.

Opportunity Background:

This doctoral thesis project will build on existing hardware and automation system research findings. Including to research and develop a potential automated pruning system for medicinal cannabis, including end effectors, computer vision and path planning.

This doctoral thesis project is being led by QUT Centre for Robotics, Australia’s world-leading centre in intelligent robotics. The Centre’s Future Farming program, led by Dr Chris Lehnert, brings together elements of technology, society, and biology and enables the use of information, extracted from purposefully collected data, to manage agricultural production systems: optimise yield, quality and increase efficiency whilst ensuring sustainability.