Australian strawberry pickers may soon be able to cut their biggest cost, labour, with the completion of a prototype robotic strawberry picker later this year.
The new technology is a product of the company Magnificent Pty Ltd, a collaboration between agricultural engineer Rudi Bartels and Queensland strawberry grower Ray Daniels.
The machine will not only cut down on labour, which is more than 50 per cent of production costs for some growers, but is also more efficient than human pickers, reported Stock and Land.
“This revolutionary robotic harvester will allow us to pick straight into punnets which will reduce the majority of our wages bill and remove the need for a packing shed,” Mr Daniels said.
“Another major advantage is the provision of reliability and continuity. The robot will be able to be programmed to pick the correct colour and grade of fruit 24 hours per day, even when it is raining or temperatures are too hot for human pickers.”
“Staff are paid by the kilogram picked so there are constantly issues of fruit bruising and immature fruit being picked. A lot of management time is spent trying to maintain fruit quality,” he explained.
“The robotic harvester will alleviate this problem, giving customers a more consistent quality of fruit, apart from cutting costs.”
Removing the human element from the picking may also improve food safety, and Mr Daniels said Wonderful was working towards the harvester being able to pack under-ripe fruit specifically for export, and fully mature fruit for the domestic market.
The development of the machine has been fast-tracked by a government AusIndustry grant.
The prototype of the Wonderful machine will be finished in June, in time for field trials at the start of the Australian strawberry season.
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