Robotic Fruit Tree Harvester

Informations projet

ROBOHARVEST

N° de convention de subvention: 954038

DOI

10.3030/954038

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 2 Juin 2020

Date de début 1 Juillet 2020

Date de fin 31 Decembre 2022

Financé au titre de

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Coût total

€ 3 071 255,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 2 149 878,50

Coordonné par

FFROBOTICS LTD
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ROBOHARVEST (Robotic Fruit Tree Harvester)

Période du rapport: 2021-07-01 au 2022-12-31

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

The project's overall objective is to achieve – at its end - a fully comprehensive and highly efficient robotic solution to orchard management.
The solution enables sustainable fruit production by empowering growers with management solutions enabled by robotic machines that perform critical operations in the orchard. The key benefits of the system include:
- Sustainable for growers, the supply chain, and consumers
- Empowering growers with data insights and impactful recommendations
- Intelligent robotic machines that deliver quality and value

The solution described above is intended to solve the difficult issues of recurrent annual seasonal recruiting of temporary human labourers (importing workers from other countries, old workers retire and young ones do not want to work in the field), the rising direct and ancillary (housing, food, transportation, insurance) costs of such employment, timely twigs-pruning, bloom- thinning and fruit-picking which are highly dependent on the availability of skilled labour (precise timing for these actions is crucial to the final quality of the fruits), and substantial improvement of grower’s profitability.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Up to the time of this reporting period extensive efforts were directed at improvement of the mechanical/robotic performance, upgrading and optimization of the vision algorithm to reach a high level of recognizing the object (twigs, bloom, fruit best suited for picking). These efforts resulted in a fully robotic machine ready for commercial use in picking fresh fruit (pruning and thinning abilities will be completed to a commercial level in the following development phases), which will be finally tested in Israel this harvesting season.

Despite the effects of Covid-19, FFRobotics continues to approach the EU markets - France, Italy and England, and already established working relationships with a leading manufacturer in France and growers around the region.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

Progress can be summarized by the achievement of a fully commercial machine, self-propelled from the beginning of the tree row to its end, capable of automatically picking fresh fruit and conveying the fruit to a bin located on the machine - all done without human touch.

FFRobot Harvesting in Israel 2020

FFRobot During harvesting Israel 2020