Fieldworker (raspberry harvesting robot)

2024: Product Announcement

At the end of August 2024, Fieldwork Robotics, a subsidiary of Plymouth University in Britain, unveiled an improved version of the world's first raspberry harvesting robot. The Fieldworker 1 machine, also known as Robocrop, collects only ripe berries.

It took less than a year to create the system, as noted. The robotic complex is equipped with cameras and machine vision algorithms that determine the extent of raspberry maturation based on spectral analysis. The machine is endowed with four robotic manipulators, at the end of each of which there are two additional cameras: neither are responsible for calculating the exact position of the berries. After the discovery of ripe fruits, a special cup with a soft membrane comes into play, which removes berries from the bush with high accuracy.

Fieldwork Robotics

The robotic complex has a height of about two meters. It moves along rows of bushes, picking 150 to 300 berries (more than 2 kg) per hour. Ordinary human assemblers work at about the same speed. But unlike them, Fieldworker 1 does not know fatigue, and therefore can function around the clock. The collected berries are placed in containers for subsequent shipment to customers.

Since the release of our first model in 2016, we have made tremendous progress in developing automatic berry harvesting technology, "says Martin Stølen, founder of Fieldwork Robotics.

The company is in talks to sell its machine to farms in Britain, Portugal, Australia and other regions. In addition, Fieldwork Robotics is considering adapting a robotic complex to harvest other soft fruits. The advent of the robot is expected to partially solve the problem of labor shortages.^[1]

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