An Israel-based company is releasing the beta version of its robotic tree fruit harvester in 2023 in the citrus market.

Farm labor shortages are a concern for the ag industry, and the citrus sector is no exception. Citrus growers may soon have fewer harvesting worries with the release of Nanovel’s robotic tree fruit harvester. The AI harvesting tech company announced the 2023 release of their beta version harvester, according to a Growing Produce article. See the details below.

Details of the Robotic Tree Fruit Harvester

According to the article, the beta robotic tree fruit harvester will start in the citrus market, though it could also be used for “stone fruit, avocado, mango, and other tree fruit.” The harvester combines AI algorithms to detect fruit, the ability to pick amongst deep foliage, and gripping and trimming tech for harmless harvesting.

In the article, Founder and CEO Isaac Mazor said, “Nanovel is committed to address a serious threat to the future supply of tree fruit. Enhancing grove profitability is a driving motivator behind building our new AI-driven robotic harvester. Nanovel’s robot is extremely intelligent, ag-environment durable, and cost-effective. Grower input throughout the development process sharpens the Nanovel team’s focus on solving real-world problems using our proprietary technology. Our mission is to provide growers a reliable, productive, and affordable solution for tree fruit harvesting.”

Benefits of the harvester include:

  • “Deep foliage real-time “find and pick” capability enabled by edge vision and computing.
  • Supports gripping and trimming using proprietary technology suitable for a wide variety of fruit types: citrus, stone fruit, avocado, mango, and more.
  • Reliable harvest scheduling.
  • Valuable insights of yield and quality by big data collection and analysis.
  • Cost-competitive compared to traditional manual picking.”

The company maintains the harvester will be available commercially in 2024.

Griffin Fertilizer is committed to helping both growers and ranchers make sound agronomic and economic decisions in order to maximize the health of their grove and pasture. As a full-service custom dry & liquid fertilizer blender and crop protection product distributor, we will continue our mission to further advance Florida agriculture. For questions or concerns about your farm or pasture, contact us and one of our team will be in touch.