Spanish technology development companies TKNIKA and Eurecat have developed a robot that combines vision and artificial intelligence to identify when strawberries are ready to be harvested and carry out the picking process. It can be adapted to different types of crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and stone fruits, among others.
The robot was created as a solution to meet the growing need of food and beverage companies to optimize field tasks during labor shortages while also generating a crop tracking database, which facilitates a more sustainable and resilient management in the face of climate change.
TKNIKA, the applied research and innovation center for Vocational Training in the Basque Country, promoted the project and validated the robot in a strawberry crop in its facilities.
The Eurecat technology center developed the robot as part of the HarvBot advanced digitalization project (HARVesting coBOT).
The picking machine was presented at the Expo AgriTech 2024 fair, focused on technologies for the agricultural sector, which took place from November 26 to 28 in Málaga.
The Ministry of Education, through the Center for Research and Applied Innovation for Basque Vocational Training, and the Eurecat Technology Center, have joined forces to develop a new technological solution for the agricultural sector.
Developed as part of the HarvBot (HARVesting coBOT) project, the robot is equipped with vision and artificial intelligence technologies to detect fruits and has a data system to track the status of the crop and the harvesting process .
As part of the project, “new 3D printed components were designed and tested to adapt the robot to fruit identification and picking, as well as algorithms for detection and manipulation tasks,” explains Óscar Palacín , researcher at the robotics and automation unit of Eurécat.
This robotic solution, developed in response to a market need identified by TKNIKA, was tested in a hydroponic cultivation of strawberries at the TKNIKA facilities in Errenteria (Gipuzkoa) which served as a pilot test for the company Enkitek.
“The agnostic application of software to the hardware used, a key pillar of this project, is crucial to introducing automation to this emerging sector, enabling access to the growing market for low-cost robots and transforming them into scalable businesses,” comments Víctor Canton. Ferrer, CEO and co-founder of Enkitek.
The HarvBot project was implemented with the support of ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, within the framework of the Digital Innovation Hub of Catalonia.