World’s first raspberry picking robot cracks the toughest nut: soft fruit

theguardian.com:

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 British 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 south-west Portugal. The farm is run by the Summer Berry Company, which is based near Chichester in West Sussex and is a leading supplier to British supermarkets including M&S, Ocado, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.

The robots are being used amid shortages of seasonal workers across Europe. The UK government said in December it would issue 30,000 six-month work visas this year for the entire horticulture industry, including flowers – the same number as for 2021 – but the trade body British Summer Fruits wants an additional 10,000.

The robots, which cost £2m to develop, stand 1.8 metres (5ft 9in) 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