Vietnamese Engineers Build Robot to Tap Rubber Trees in Place of Workers

A robot that taps rubber trees

Engineer Đỗ Minh Tâm, founder of Tân Ý Robot and Rubber Company in Đồng Nai, built a robot that cuts the bark of rubber trees to collect latex, the milky sap used to make rubber. The machine grips a tree with a cylinder-shaped arm. Then a blade moves in an arc and cuts a long line in the bark. Tâm spent four years developing it.

Key facts

• The robot is more than 2 meters tall and weighs over half a ton.
• It has about 1.5 times the output of a skilled worker.
• In a test at the Đồng Nai Rubber Corporation on 51 trees, it collected about 1.5 times the reference amount of a worker.
• Older automatic tools need more than 2,000 devices, each fixed to one tree, to replace one worker, at a cost of many billion đồng.

Why tapping is hard work

Tapping usually starts around 2 to 5 a.m., when trees give the most latex. Workers climb hilly, wet, slippery land with little light. They often get skin problems, anemia, latex allergies, and breathing illnesses. Because of this, tapping is listed as very hard and dangerous work. Existing machines are not good enough. Many use vibrating blades that damage the sap tubes and lower output.

Why it matters

Vietnam's rubber farms face a serious labor shortage. A robot that does dangerous work and can keep up with or beat skilled workers could help the industry. The robot's smooth, continuous cuts keep the sap tubes open, which may give more latex. The design also has patented parts.

What to watch

• Whether the robot works well on many more farms and tree types.
• How the cost compares with human labor and other machines.
• Whether the company can produce and sell the robot at scale.