Fruit-picking robots

Robot workers

When fruit is ready it must be picked as quickly as possible to avoid wasting food and the grower losing money. However, there aren't always enough pickers to pick the fruit at the right time. Fruit and vegetable growers have been working alongside researchers to engineer a solution to help cover some of the labour shortages. Companies like as Dogtooth and Saga are developing agricultural robots focused on strawberries.

Why just strawberries? 

Most companies developing horticultural robots have focused on picking strawberries as they know these are a tricky fruit to pick. If robots can be developed to pick strawberries, they can also be adjusted to pick any other type of fruit. 

Not just for picking

Robots are in development to help with all stages of agriculture. Saga already run lightweight Thorvald robots and in the US, UK and Norway, the robots shine UV-c light onto strawberries to prevent mould. 

Wootzano Ltd developed a robotic system called Avarai, which works alongside humans. It can find defects on fruit, trim fruit to size and pack fruit away ready to be shipped. 

Robotic farm future

In July 2022, Simon Pearson, Professor at Lincoln University, co-chaired a report called Review of Automation in Agriculture with George Eustice (UK's Environment Secretary at the time). The report found that there was an emerging cluster of agricultural robot expertise being developed that will be able to replace some of the human harvesting roles.