Fruit farmers are turning to robots to help with harvest amid a human worker shortage. One Tasmanian soft fruit farm is using 16 robotic harvesters to help pick its fruit this summer.
Burlington Berries at Cressy, in northern Tasmania, has shipped out a fleet of 16 robots from the UK to help with picking over the summer. The farm trialled its first robot in collaboration with British company Dogtooth Technologies nearly seven years ago reports www.abc.net.au
In Australia, the federal government and private investors have funded the development of fruit-picking robots.
But there are particular challenges using mechanical picking for soft fruits, like strawberries.
Rachel MacKenzie from Berries Australia said robots were now very common in blueberry packhouses, but it was less common to use them for harvesting.
"Blueberries are more robust and I believe some companies are exploring mechanical harvesting for non-premium varietal," she said.
"With increasing labour costs I can foresee that mechanical blueberry harvesting may become more common in the next five years, but it is further away for rubus and strawberries."