ISHS Hort Forum Episode 2: The present and future of the use of autonomous equipment and robotic harvesters in field-based fruit production

Mechanizing the manual harvesting of fresh market fruits constitutes one of the biggest challenges to the sustainability of the fruit industry Robotic harvester prototypes are being developed and field-tested for high-volume, high-value crops, such as apples, kiwifruit, and strawberries. However, most of the developed robots have not, to date, successfully replaced the judgment, dexterity, and speed of experienced pickers at a competing cost; the challenges of inadequate fruit picking efficiency and throughput remain largely unsolved. This first part of this presentation will present the main factors – horticultural and technological – that shape robots’ harvest efficiencies and speeds and will stimulate discussion on approaches to overcome the existing limitations. As an intermediate step to full automation, mechanical labor aids have been introduced to increase productivity by reducing workers’ non-productive time. The second part of this presentation will introduce the state of the art in robotic harvest-aid technology and present results from deploying robotic harvest-aid systems during commercial harvesting. Finally, the presentation will conclude by discussing ‘big-picture’ issues related to autonomous agricultural machines, labor, and the existing and necessary standards and regulatory framework.