Sydney, Aug 17 (IANS): Robots are being used in Australia to improve the production, packaging and processing of fruits and vegetables.

The industry involves repetitive, labour intensive jobs robots which work safely next to humans could soon take some of the load, Xinhua cited the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

Andrew Taylor, an engineer from auto control systems, designed these robots.

He described the robot as an arm "which is really good for picking things up and putting them down".

His robotic arms can work alongside people. Larger robots were often much too dangerous to work with.

Taylor described plans for a robot to assist in the packing of strawberries, which is arduous and boring for people.

"They have quite a labour intensive operation," he said.

"Also, they have a very large turnover of staff, they have a lot of trouble with training, they have a lot of trouble with people doing what's basically a terribly boring job."

"But it is something that the robot can do 24 hours, seven days a week," Taylor said.