Building New Lexicons For Apple Picking With Emily LaRosa

In late July, PNW Ag Network attended the WSU Smart Orchard Field Day in Mattawa, Washington. Here we talked with Emily LaRosa of Michigan State University about her project building a new lexicon around automated apple picking.

Emily LaRosa: I am a philosopher of agriculture out of Michigan State, and I'm working this summer based out of Corvallis on tree fruit growing and autonomous apple pickers. What I'm trying to do right now is an interesting project where I'm getting all of the partners surrounding autonomous apple picking into the same room so that we can create a working lexicon of terminology surrounding what these systems mean. When technologists say 'safety' and a farm hand says 'safety', these things mean completely different things. And when I say 'trustworthy' versus when a farm manager says 'trustworthy' in regards to a system, we might not be talking about the same level of trust. What we're trying to do is make a working lexicon surrounding the deployment of these automated systems. We're also trying to have a second-hand meeting where we then move forward from that lexicon into a real-time editing of a curated information framework.

Now that just sounds jargony, but it's a framework so that way folks who actually are using these systems know what the informational wants or needs are for that system for that category, know who's responsible for sharing that information with them, and know how to get it. That is really crucial because if you're a stakeholder or a partner within these communities, within these technologies, oftentimes no one is telling you where to go, what to do, or how to access that information. We don't have anyone who's told 'okay, you're responsible for sharing this information in this way with these parties.' This is actually one of the ways that we can create a verifiable checklist so you can then go to your grower, you can go to the developer, you can go to the disseminator of the technology and say, you're supposed to help me with understanding X, where's my information? And that'll help everyone.

PNW Ag: That's great. Do you need any local farmers involved in this?

Emily LaRosa: I need everybody that I can possibly get who's working in the Washington area on apple picking. I am currently looking for farmers, growers, and farmhands. I would love to have input from that community. My ultimate goal is to have the secondary meeting on August 13th, so if I can get your information and I can get you interviewed before that, that would be fantastic.

PNW Ag: How long will the interview take?

Emily LaRosa: The interviews run about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, they're uncompensated, but they're very quick and conversational, and any additional information that you want to share with me, I'm more than happy to hear.

PNW Ag: Can they do that over the phone with you? How will they reach you?

Emily LaRosa: Over the phone is great. Zoom is better because face-to-face is often helpful, but I'm happy to do whatever format works for anybody. I can be reached at larosaem@msu.edu. The first interview session will be before August 13th.

PNW Ag: Are you talking to all the vendors today?

Emily LaRosa: I'm talking to the vendors, I'm talking to technologists, and I'm also just getting a feel for the lay of the land here in Washington.

PNW Ag: And is this information going to be nationwide or is it focused just for Washington?

Emily LaRosa: So this information right now is focused for Washington because this is the first test study that I'm doing regarding the Curated Information Framework. Hopefully, if it is useful, I can then take it to policymakers and say, look, this is actually something that we've done collaboratively, and let's start to integrate it into how we talk about technology as a whole.

PNW Ag: Yes, because we're going to need more information. Technology is just such a challenge. And when you have a business to already run, you don't have time to do all the research yourself.

Emily LaRosa: No, and people should be meeting you where you're at.