World’s first raspberry picking robot cracks the toughest nut: soft fruit
The robot developed by Fieldwork Robotics can pick a kilogram of raspberries an hour. Picture: Fieldwork Robotics
The next raspberries you eat might have been picked by a Kraken-like four-armed robot, rather than a human. Fruit harvested by what is believed to be the world’s first raspberry-picking robot in commercial operation is now on sale in supermarkets.
Two robots developed by Fieldwork Robotics, a spinout company from the University of Plymouth, have been harvesting the berries round-the-clock in polytunnels in a field near Odemira in southwest Portugal. The farm is run by the Summer Berry Company, a leading supplier to supermarkets including M&S, Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
The robots are being used amid shortages of seasonal workers across Europe. The robots, which cost £2m to develop, stand 1.8 metres tall and each is fitted with four 3D-printed plastic arms that simultaneously pick raspberries – among the hardest fruit to pick, as they are softer than other berries and grow on tall bushes at varying heights.
When the first iteration of the robot went on trial in the UK three years ago, it had one harvesting arm that gingerly approached the fruit and took a full minute to pick and deposit a berry into a punnet. Since then its sensor technology and grippers have been completely redesigned to reduce slippage and harvesting time.
“We are making real progress in the development of our harvesting robots,” said Rui Andres, Fieldwork’s chief executive. “Raspberries are very sensitive so we have had to develop technology that can apply enough pressure to release the fruit from the stem without damaging it.
He said the robots were picking 1kg of fruit an hour, with the company working to ramp this up to more than 4kg an hour. The firm is aiming to have a robot picking 25,000 raspberries a day, compared with 15,000 for a human working an eight-hour shift.
Fieldwork has leased the robots to the Summer Berry Company and hopes to have five robots operating by the end of the year, and a further 40 next year on its 130-hectare (320 acres) farm near Odemira, where raspberries can be harvested all year round. It is getting requests from other farmers every week.
Three-quarters of the raspberries picked at the Odemira farm by the robots end up in supermarkets in the UK, with the rest going to retailers across Europe. Farmers have long grappled with a shortage of seasonal fruit pickers that was exacerbated by Brexit, but other countries are also struggling to recruit enough workers for the back-breaking work.
Andres said: “Some people are afraid we steal jobs, but [farmers] can’t find enough workers at the moment.” Fieldwork’s declared aim is to make autonomous robots that can operate alongside human workers and ensure any gaps are filled, rather than replacing humans. Its charges for the robot harvesting service are similar to what seasonal workers are paid, Andres said.
