Grant boost for BerryBot Project

The company will use the funding to lead the development of Alpha 2.0, the next iteration of its raspberry picking robot. Project partners include Performance Projects (PP) and berry grower the Hall Hunter Partnership (HHP).

The BerryBot Project will further develop the robot’s hardware, software and control/vision to enable picking at an enhanced rate.

Alpha has different cameras with different functions; the ‘global’ camera is used for positioning and detecting multiple states of ripeness of each berry in view, whilst the ‘local’ cameras support the final stages of the harvesting.

David Fulton, Fieldwork Robotics CEO, said proprietary software enables the cameras to relay information to fruit picking end effectors on Alpha’s arms.

“Our end effector also validates at point of pick to provide required quality assurance of the berries that are then deposited in the punnet,” he said. “We have filed patents on our end-effector, which includes a soft mechanism and is the core of our IP, and unique to Fieldwork Robotics.”