A new generation of strawberry-picking robots is being trialled on a farm in Essex as part of a £1 million initiative aimed at addressing labour shortages in UK agriculture.
The project, led by the University of Essex and funded by Defra, is currently testing second-generation robotic pickers at Wilkin and Sons’ vertical strawberry farm in Tiptree.
The initiative marks a significant advancement in the development of automated solutions for horticultural labour challenges.
The latest robot design is significantly smaller and more cost-effective than its predecessor, while maintaining high levels of performance.
Equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning, the robot is capable of identifying ripe strawberries, picking them with precision, and packaging them in a matter of seconds.
A third prototype is also scheduled for field trials later this summer.
Dr Vishwanathan Mohan, from the university and the project’s lead researcher, said: “The focus has always been on speed, precision, and the cost to build a commercially viable product.
"This season we will, for the first time, begin trialling second- and third-generation robots. At the same time, we plan to deploy the robots to harvest other crop types and labour-intensive tasks to demonstrate their versatility.”
The second-generation model has been developed at a cost of approximately £20,000—around one-fifth the cost of the first prototype trialled last year.
This reduction has been achieved through the reuse of the core ‘vision-action-decision-making’ software developed during earlier stages of the project.
Looking ahead, the team aims to produce five strawberry-picking robots by 2027, with each iteration becoming increasingly compact and economically viable.
Dr Mohan added: “The ambition is to bring the cost of an outdoor rover for AgriTech applications to the same price as a laptop. We want to make cutting-edge agri-robotics accessible to everyone around the world.”
The project has also led to the creation of an AgriTech spin-out company, Versatile RobotX, co-founded by Dr Mohan.
The start-up will focus on commercialising the university’s research and accelerating the adoption of autonomous technologies in farming.
