Prototype agribot promises to cut costs and tackles labour shortages
Around £140,000 could be cut from the price tag of robotic harvesters following successful trials of a prototype platform that picks and packs strawberries in seconds.
Essex University has been working with jam makers Wilkin & Sons to test the new prototype, which could help tackle a labour shortage in the industry.
Existing crop-picking robots cost on average around £150,000 but if successful, the new prototype will cost around £10,000.
Funded by a £1.02m grant through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ flagship Farming Innovation Programme, the project has seen the low-cost robot tasked with picking strawberries from one of Wilkins and Sons’ vertical farms in Tiptree.
The robot can pick a strawberry in 2.5 seconds and is based on a previous prototype which has been successfully trialled for the last two seasons.
According to Essex University, the modular architecture can be adapted to other crops, with robotic harvesting trials planned with onions, tomatoes and lettuce.
Dr Vishwanathan Mohan and Professor Klaus McDonald-Maier, both from Essex’s School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, have helped design and build the robot.
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