What’s next for robotics R&D?
Hort Innovation is seeking a suitably qualified, experienced and capable delivery partner for the project: Development of fruit harvesting robot (AS21004).
The objective of the services being sought are to:
- Develop a fully functional fruit harvesting robot for apples as a pilot industry
- Demonstrate the commercial harvesting of fruit in orchards.
Development of fruit harvesting robot is funded by the Hort Frontiers Advanced Production Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed Hort Innovation.
Visit Hort Innovation’s website to learn How Hort Frontiers works.
Closing date: 3.00pm (AEST), 04 April 2022.
What’s currently in development for Australian orchards?
There are already a number of fruit harvesting AI and robotics systems under development in Australia.
The Monash Apple Retrieving System (MARS) was tested in Fankhauser Orchards for the 2021 harvest of Pink Lady apples from 2D trees.
Ripe Robotics’s picker Eve has been harvesting a range of fruit in the Goulburn Valley, including apples, stonefruit and citrus. Eve is the third prototype from Ripe Robotics.
Preparing for automation
What does a “robot ready” orchard look like?
What else is on the horizon?
For a glimpse of the range of future technology and what it can offer the modern orchard revisit the Future Technology for the modern orchard Future Orchards® presentation by Nic Finger & Craig Hornblow, AgFirst (November 2019).
Development of fruit harvesting robot is funded by the Hort Frontiers Advanced Production Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed Hort Innovation.
