Innovation

Fruit-picking robot

Raspberry-picking robots are on the horizon. A new robot being developed by Fieldwork Robotics, a spin-out company from Plymouth University, could let farmers pick more than 25,000 raspberries a day.
The robot uses machine learning techniques to identify "supermarket ripe" raspberries by using its cameras and sensors. Once it has identified a good raspberry to pick, the grippers (which could be loosely compared to barbecue tongs) home in on the fruit and pull it off before placing it into a nearby basket. The technology has cost nearly $900,000 to develop.
The new technology could potentially give farmers a way around labor shortage issues and the rising cost to hire human pickers.