For generations, Liu Wanyun's family has harvested lemons by hand, bending down to pick the fruit and carrying heavy loads as they descend the mountain.
But now, advanced technology provides new assistance for him.
In an orchard in Shuikou Village, Tongnan District, southwest China's Chongqing City, Liu and other villagers pick ripe lemons as a drone cuts through the morning mist overhead, hovering with precision over the orchard before lowering a hook to lift sacks of freshly harvested fruit.
Accompanied by the rumbling of rotors, a drone carrying 100 kilograms of lemons descends a mountain, unloads its cargo onto a waiting truck, and quickly returns for another load. The scene illustrates the growing human-machine collaboration that is transforming the lemon industry in the mountainous city of Chongqing, China.
"It only takes a few drone flights to complete the work that used to take us a whole day," Liu said.
According to drone operator Yang Qing, the drone model used in the orchard can spray, sow seeds, and transport goods. Powered by advances in artificial intelligence ( AI ) and computing power, the drone is capable of fully autonomous flight and detecting obstacles from all directions.
A single drone operator can transport 20 tons of lemons per day, a job that once took 10 people two days to complete.
"This reduces labor costs and increases efficiency, as the drone can be fully charged in 10 minutes before taking off again," Yang said.
Beyond the orchards, automation takes over inside Snow King Agriculture (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., where robotic arms carefully lift boxes of lemons onto a conveyor belt, and the fruit is washed, sorted, weighed, and packed before being transferred to storage, all in just 15 minutes.
