Descripción del proyecto
Un robot de varios brazos, pionero en la automatización de la recogida de fruta fresca
Pese a que las máquinas han reemplazado a las manos de los humanos en diversas tareas agrícolas, la recolección de la fruta sigue siendo una actividad desarrollada por humanos. Sin embargo, esto expone a los cultivadores de fruta fresca a problemas relacionados con la escasez de recolectores y con el aumento de los costes de mano de obra y producción. Por otra parte, aproximadamente el 10-15 % de la producción puede ser dañado de forma involuntaria por los recolectores humanos. La automatización de la recogida de frutas está emergiendo en la actualidad como una alternativa. El FFRobot, un robot pionero con varios brazos destinados a la recogida de frutas, cuenta con visión computerizada, «software» de procesamiento de imágenes y algoritmos especializados. Se puede desplazar de forma automática entre las líneas de las plantaciones de frutales y recoger distintas frutas frescas sin la participación de humanos. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos ROBOHARVEST preparará la comercialización del robot demostrando su rentabilidad y su funcionalidad operativa.
Objetivo
Fresh fruit tree growers worldwide are increasingly burdened by the scarcity of human labour, rising labour costs, and overall production costs. This phenomenon is becoming more acute in light of regulatory restrictions, as well as constraints on import and temporary employment from less developed countries. Moreover, human pickers inadvertently bruise some of the fruit picked during the picking process. The result is loss of yield and profit to the fruit grower by up to 30%.
The need for automation in agriculture in general and in fresh fruit harvesting in particular has never been greater and we intend to
tap into this market with the launch of the FFRobot. We anticipate a market penetration rate of 3% of the TAM, amounting to
potential annual revenues of €240M.
The FFRobot is a revolutionary multi-arm fruit harvesting robot with specially developed computerized vision, image processing
software and dedicated algorithms. The FFRobot can move automatically amongst the orchard rows and pick apples and a variety of
different fresh fruit by emulating the human hand movement, all without human touch!
In the last submission we received a Seal of Excellence and a score of 13.88! We have since then reached a significant operational
milestone. Our main objective for this Phase 2 project is to bridge the gap from TRL 7 to full commercialisation of the FFRobot. To
achieve this, activities for this project will centre on: demonstrating the operative functionality of the multi-arm FFRobot (including
field trial tests); improving the cost effectiveness of the FFRobot; identifying and signing agreements with commercialisation
partners; and devising a viable short and long-term commercialisation and scale-up plan.
FFRobotics was founded in 2014 by Avi Kahani (CEO), with the vision of disrupting the fresh fruit harvesting market by automating
the fruit picking process from end-to-end. It is AgTech at its best, combining computer vision and robotics.
Ámbito científico
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturefruit growing
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputer vision
- social sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomation
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020-3
Régimen de financiación
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinador
4282300 Kadima Tzoran
Israel
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.