Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester — Specs & Review
Specifications
| Brand | Fieldwork Robotics |
|---|---|
| Model | Raspberry Harvester |
| Year | 2022 |
| Category | Agricultural |
| Autonomy | fully-autonomous |
| Environment | outdoor |
| Weight | 800 kg |
| Dimensions | 250cm L × 150cm W × 200cm H |
| Connectivity | WiFi |
| Country of origin | GB |
Key features
- Autonomous raspberry and blackberry picking
- Multi-spectral vision for ripe berry detection
- Compliant arm for fragile soft fruit handling
- UK soft fruit grower commercial trials
- One of robotics' most challenging harvest problems
- Addresses critical UK soft fruit labour shortage
- Fieldwork Robotics early commercial deployment
What is it?
Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester is an autonomous soft fruit picker — tackling one of the hardest problems in agricultural robotics: gentle picking of fragile raspberries and blackberries within complex cane structures.
Who is it for?
- UK and European soft fruit growers facing acute seasonal labour shortages
- Raspberry and blackberry producers in commercial trial partnership with Fieldwork Robotics
- Forward-thinking soft fruit operations willing to pioneer autonomous harvest technology
Key specs
- Crop: Raspberry, blackberry
- Vision: Multi-spectral ripe fruit detection
- Arm: Compliant — fragile fruit handling
- Stage: Early commercial trials
- Origin: Fieldwork Robotics (Bristol, UK)
- Purchase: B2B partnership via fieldworkrobotics.com
Limitations
- Early trials — not fully commercially available
- Very challenging technical problem — harvest rates still developing
- Soft fruit variability challenges vision consistency
- UK primary market
FAQ
What is the Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester used for?
The Raspberry Harvester autonomously picks raspberries and blackberries — one of the most technically challenging harvesting tasks in agricultural robotics, due to fruit fragility, variable ripeness within the same cane, and the complex canopy structure of raspberry plants. It uses multi-spectral vision to identify ripe fruit and a compliant arm to navigate cane structures and pick without damage.
How much does the Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester cost?
Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The Harvester is in early commercial trials with UK soft fruit growers and is available through B2B partnership with Fieldwork Robotics at fieldworkrobotics.com. As a pre-commercial-scale platform, pricing is structured around trial deployment agreements.
Who is the Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester designed for?
The Harvester targets UK and European soft fruit growers facing acute seasonal labour shortages — a problem acute in the British raspberry sector, which historically relies on Eastern European seasonal labour that has contracted significantly since Brexit. It is specifically relevant to commercial raspberry and blackberry growers willing to participate in pioneering commercial automation trials.
What makes the raspberry picking problem technically hard?
Raspberry harvesting is considered one of the hardest problems in agricultural robotics for three compounding reasons: raspberries are highly fragile and bruise under minimal force; ripe and unripe fruits appear side by side on the same cane requiring individual fruit-level decisions; and the dense, irregular cane canopy makes arm navigation and fruit access substantially more complex than open-field crops like strawberries.
How does the Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester compare to the Agrobot E-Series?
The Agrobot E-Series (Spain, $200K–350K) is a more commercially mature platform for strawberry harvesting. The Fieldwork Robotics Raspberry Harvester tackles a harder technical problem (raspberries vs strawberries) and is earlier in commercial deployment. Both address fruit labour shortages but in different crops — strawberry harvesting has more matured commercial solutions; raspberry harvesting remains a frontier problem.