Strawberry-picking robots could collect enough fruit to supply tennis-lovers at Wimbledon for one week.
The ‘Rubion’ is programmed to only pick ‘perfect’ strawberries, with just 14 machines being able to gather enough to keep the tournament topped up for seven days.
Its clasping mechanism, which leaves the fruit bruise-free, picks and packages a strawberry every five seconds, resulting in up to 360kg of the berry a day.
Rubion even has a built in ‘camera’ uses sensors to ensure only the ripest fruit makes it through.
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Strawberry-picking robots could collect enough fruit to supply tennis-lovers at Wimbledon for one week. The ‘Rubion’ is programmed to only pick ‘perfect’ strawberries, with just 14 machines being able to gather enough to keep the tournament topped up for seven days
The brains behind the technology argue the machine surpasses even the most enthusiastic fruit picker, who ‘require breaks and complain about the weather’.
Wimbledon kicks off on Monday, with fans being expected to consume a whopping 34,000kg of strawberries over the two-week tournament.
Even the most enthusiastic fruit picker can only manage around 50kg a day, with them also requiring breaks and constantly fighting the temptation not to munch through their bounty.
The Belgium-based manufacturer ACTPHAST 4.0, which specialises in providing robotic solutions to agriculture and food, has therefore launched Rubion.
The machine is designed to pick strawberries off raised ‘vegetable patches’. It then sorts the fruit by size or weight, before packing it into punnets.
Rubion is even programmed with light-detecting sensors to pick up on the wavelengths given off by the fruit, with only the best being good enough.
The brains behind the technology argue the machine surpasses even the most enthusiastic fruit picker, who ‘require breaks and complain about the weather’. Wimbledon kicks off on Monday, with fans being expected to consume a whopping 34,000kg of strawberries over the two-week tournament
ACTPHAST’s founder and CEO Dr Tom Coen said the picking of soft fruits with machines has always been tricky given that they are so easy to get squashed and the sensitivity needed to discern whether a fruit was ripe or rotten, simply wasn’t there
ACTPHAST’s founder and CEO Dr Tom Coen said: ‘The picking of soft fruits with machines has always been tricky given that they are so easy to get squashed and the sensitivity needed to discern whether a fruit was ripe or rotten, simply wasn’t there.
‘However, Rubion, our autonomous strawberry-picking robot is a novel way around this problem.
‘It is comparable to a human in many ways. The robot only picks the finest fresh, red berries and will not bruise or hurt the strawberries in any way.’
Rubion, which has reportedly been described as a ‘revolution’, works tirelessly at a rate of around 11,500 berries over 16 hours.
The concept came from the research and development company Octinion, which then partnered with ACTPHAST to create the end result.
The Belgium-based manufacturer ACTPHAST 4.0, which specialises in providing robotic solutions to agriculture and food, has therefore launched Rubion. The machine is designed to pick strawberries off raised ‘vegetable patches’
Dr Jan Anthonis, co-founder and chief technology officer of Octinion, said: ‘Our robot doesn’t need a break or a holiday and doesn’t complain about the weather.
‘Rotting and unpicked fruit from a lack of human pickers on farms all over the world could soon be tackled with robots.
‘Just like you know what a plump, juicy red strawberry looks like, Rubion can do this mathematically, looking for the infrared spectroscopic heat signatures given off from a perfect fruit, getting a perfect ‘hit’ every time.
‘The arm has our very own patented ‘soft touch gripper’ that doesn’t do any more damage to the strawberries than a human would.
‘It picks the strawberry literally like a person without cutting or burning the stem, but by actually picking a berry.’
Rubion, which has reportedly been described as a ‘revolution’, works tirelessly at a rate of around 11,500 berries over 16 hours. The concept came from the research and development company Octinion, which then partnered with ACTPHAST to create the end result
The collaboration with ACTPHAST led to the inbuilt sensor ‘camera’ that guarantees only red, ripe berries make it through.
Peter Doyle, central outreach coordinator at the company, added: ‘It was a real buzz in helping to develop the key photonic components that ultimately realised the robotic strawberry picker.
‘Existing businesses have never used photonics before are now looking to ACTPHAST 4.0 to help them develop the photonics component to their next generation product.’
