Robotic experts are working with world-famous jam makers to find new and efficient ways of picking strawberries with robots.
In some UK farms, up to 20% of soft fruit are currently unpicked due to problems recruiting enough workers.
It's a situation which could get worse after Brexit, and farms are having to look at alternative ways of harvesting their crops in the future.
But a new major project, spearheaded by Essex University which is involving jam makers Wilkin & Sons of Tiptree, looks to change this.
The project will look at how robots can work in natural, unstructured environments where they can pick, inspect and pack soft fruits, working alongside humans in a farm environment and also reducing production costs.
Led by Dr Vishuu Mohan, he said: “The challenge is that no two berries are the same - they come in different shapes, sizes, order of ripeness and many are hidden in the foliage.
“Also the environment keeps changing constantly - sunny, windy, rainy - in contrast to a typical industrial environment. Hence, dextrous manipulation in unstructured environments is a big challenge for robotics today.”
One billion strawberries
Currently one billion strawberries are picked by hand at Wilkin & Sons of Tiptree every year, by humans who have half a second to check the strawberries for ripeness, disease and size.
Fruit picking may seem a simple task, but picking the fruit without touching the berry will be a challenge.
The project will need to ensure that the fruit grown always arrives with the customer in perfect condition.
“Skilled humans find it effortless, but when we try to build a system which does the same thing it is a complex, integration of vision, touch, force and movement and on top of it the ability to learn and adapt - which is the only way to deal with any changing, unstructured environment,” added Dr Mohan.
To help the first part of the project to get robots to identify ripe fruit, scientists are working with a special variety of strawberry which has low hanging fruit, and work is underway to enable robots to select and pick them and a prototype should be available in few months time.
The research will then look at bi-manual robotic coordination to recreate how humans pick with two hands, active vision to find berries amongst foliage and learning to counteract changing environmental conditions.
'Unrealistic'
In response to the project, Nick Marston, Chairman of industry body British Summer Fruits, said it is still a long way off until robots are picking fruit on UK farms.
"It is completely unrealistic to think that robots for fruit picking will be in place by the time the UK leaves the European Union," Mr Marston said.
"The picking robots in development are currently being designed for strawberry picking, which only accounts for around 40% of the labour needed by berry growers in the UK, meaning we will still need numbers of seasonal workers for crop tasks such as planting and husbandry, packing fruit, and the picking of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries even when the technology has been developed."
Mr Marston said it is "unlikely" the UK will see the large scale availability and thus use of robots for picking British strawberries in the next 5-10 years.
The project follows news of British farmers and growers calling on the Home Office to re-introduce a seasonal worker visa scheme after Brexit.
