Raspberry picking robots developed by the University of Plymouth spinout company, Fieldwork Robotics, have now been deployed commercially in two locations in Portugal.

The robots – fitted with four picking arms – are successfully working autonomously, with sensor technology and grippers completely redesigned to reduce slippage and cut the harvesting time.

The fruit being picked is passing all quality controls, and the company is now working to further speed up the picking process so that each robot can gather 2kg of fruit per hour, while making an effort to drive down production costs, with changes in the materials used for the robots.

Fieldwork Robotics was launched in 2016 to develop and commercialise the work of Robotics Lecturer Dr Martin Stoelen, and the company is now based in Cambridge. Its aim has always been to create autonomous robots that can work alongside the human workforce, filling any gaps in productivity.

It has currently developed two systems – a vertical harvester that can be adjusted to the height of fruit plants, and a horizontal platform that can navigate in multiple farming environments and be deployed through rows of crops for picking without human supervision.

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The long-term aim is that each robot will be capable of picking more than 25,000 raspberries over the course of a day, but it can keep working for as long as its batteries retain power. By contrast, human workers pick around 15,000 in a typical eight-hour shift.

Director and CEO, Rui Andres, said: “The UK alone is facing a shortage of around 90,000 harvesters, and that has the potential to impact on food availability. Our purpose has always been to help growers harvest everything they produce, keeping waste to an absolute minimum and ensuring they can operate in a sustainable manner.

“Through our technological advances and commercial deployments, we are making real progress in the development of our harvesting robots. Raspberries are very sensitive so we have had the develop technology that can apply enough pressure to release the fruit from the stem without damaging it. At the same time, our sensors are now so advanced that they can tell if the fruit is ready to be harvested or not, meaning what can be sold is all that is picked.”

Since its launch, Fieldwork has raised significant funds through external investment and equity fundraising, including raising £675,000 through an equity fundraising from existing and new investors in March 2021, and receiving more than £850,000 from Innovate UK to accelerate scale up of its raspberry harvesting robot to bring it to market.

Along the way, it has developed partnerships with some of the world’s leading fruit and vegetable producers, including Bonduelle and the Hall Hunter Partnership, while also working to optimise its technology in conjunction with engineers at Bosch.

In addition to raspberries, its robots can be adapted for different crops by changing the software algorithms and tools at the end of the harvesting arms.