Melbourne, AU
Ripe Robotics builds and manages fruit picking robots. Growers can contract us to pick some of their fruit at a better price and higher quality than a human picker. After successful early field trials, we are now working towards commercialisation, and are accepting reservations from both orange and apple growers for our picking services in 2021, 2022, and 2023
How does it work? We arrive on your farm with our robots at the start of the harvest our technician set up and calibrate the robots for your orchard then remains nearby to monitor and maintain them during the harvest we also set you up with our web portal and app so that you can see what our machines are doing and receive updates on the fruit quality, quantity and harvest location. Then, we use modern deep learning to find the fruit detect if it is right incorrectly sized and determine if it is able to be picked. If the robot is ever unsure simply alerts the local technician to instruct the robot what to do. These instructions are used to improve the software in the future so the machine actually gets better over time. Lastly, we pick. The robot it self is about 4 m tall and about 1 m wide. It’s designed with adjustable arm length so can work in rows of 2 to 5 m with three diameters of up to 3 m through thinner trees work best. It uses electric motors to move it section piece to the fruit and gently sucks it off the tree with a vacuum. Each machine can replace one human picker and multiple machines can work together during the harvest.