Dogtooth Technologies, a Cambridgeshire-based technology company says that a new grant will help it develop its new picking robot for strawberries and other horticultural crops.
The firm has received £60,000 from the Eastern Agri-Tech Growth Initiative towards an initial trial of its ‘Cabeirian’ project featuring 10 robots, each of which can navigate down the row, select and pick ripe fruit and place it in a punnet.
Ed Herbert, founder of Dogtooth Technologies, said, “The project is crucial in developing a cornerstone of our scalable strawberry harvesting system and the support of the Agri-Tech Initiative has already helped to create jobs, both within Dogtooth and for our local suppliers.”
Mark Reeve, chairman of the Eastern Agri-Tech Initiative, said: “It’s impressive to see such ambitious and innovative development within the agricultural industry. To be able to offer this grant to support the team at Dogtooth Technologies means we are supporting a movement towards the systemisation of the harvesting process, which will enable farmers and their teams to more accurately predict how long harvest will take.
“The fruit-picking robots will also allow farmers to buy a high-quality and consistent harvesting capacity that will enable them to better control costs that can otherwise be fairly unpredictable.”
Photo Caption: The robot will be able to detect and pick ripe fruit
Photo Credit: Flickr