Descrizione del progetto
Un robot multi-braccio per introdurre l’automazione nella raccolta di frutta fresca
Sebbene per molti lavori agricoli le braccia umane siano state sostituite dalle macchine, la coltivazione della frutta si basa tuttora sul lavoro degli esseri umani. Tuttavia, ciò lascia i coltivatori di alberi da frutto esposti a carenze di forza lavoro e all’aumento dei costi di manodopera e di produzione. Per di più, una percentuale compresa tra il 10 e il 15 % della resa agricola può essere inavvertitamente ammaccata se raccolta a mano. L’automazione nella raccolta di frutta fresca sta ora emergendo come alternativa. FFRobot, un avveniristico robot multi-braccio per la raccolta di frutta, è dotato di visione artificiale, di un software per elaborazione di immagini e di algoritmi dedicati. Il robot è in grado di muoversi autonomamente tra le file dei frutteti e di raccogliere vari tipi di frutta fresca senza il coinvolgimento degli esseri umani. Il progetto ROBOHARVEST, finanziato dall’UE, preparerà la commercializzazione del robot, dimostrandone le caratteristiche di funzionamento e la convenienza dal punto di vista economico.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020-3
Meccanismo di finanziamento
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinatore
4282300 Kadima Tzoran
Israele
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.