SOUTH BURLINGTON ― Robotic harvesting machines about the size and shape of garden sheds move through lush rows of strawberries in California, scanning above and below the leaf canopy to locate the berries before extending an arm with a padded pincer, guided by a camera, to delicately pluck the ripe berries and store them on-board.
A company called advanced.farm developed the robotic picker in response to chronic labor shortages in the agricultural industry. California grows 90% of the strawberries produced in the United States, and the red berries are one of the state’s biggest cash crops, but also one of the most labor-intensive to harvest, according to a fact sheet from OnLogic, the South Burlington company that made the industrial computers powering the strawberry harvesters.
