How robot farmers are working night and day to pick 250,000 berries a week
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A robot is now as good as humans at harvesting berries – and never needs to stop for a loo break. You may not have heard of them, but they are already in use commercially in the UK, and could even have picked part of your Christmas dinner. The tech is developing so quickly that ‘the robotic future will soon be upon us’.
![[Christmas story: Fruit picking robots]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233545993-1c53.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Duncan Robertson, the chief executive of Dogtooth, said the latest model of his robot is the world’s first to equal the productivity of a person. The robot, which looks like something out of Star Wars, can work 24/7 as it can see in the dark using computer vision and AI to identify ripe berries.
![[Christmas story: Fruit picking robots]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233545920-1e03.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
It does not grab the fruit itself to pluck it, but snips the stalk, meaning the berry is at lower risk of bruising and of cross-contamination from mildew and fungus. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video.
Up Next. Quality control is also automated, so bad berries are discarded immediately while the good ones can be refrigerated and go straight to supermarkets. Dr Robertson told Metro the tech could solve a major problem of labour shortages facing UK farmers, which is so acute that fruit has at times been left to rot in fields.
Farmers have typically relied on migrant workers to do low-paid and physically challenging fruit picking, but Brexit and the pandemic made recruiting people more difficult. ‘It’s creating a sustainability crisis for the industry. Costs are increasing dramatically, but it’s not really the case that supermarkets are willing to pay more,’ Dr Robertson said.
