Quivering and hesitant, like a spoon-wielding toddler trying to eat soup without spilling it, the world’s first raspberry-picking robot is attempting to harvest one of the fruits. The robot has gone on trial in the UK, as the farming industry battles rising labour costs and Brexit-related shortages of seasonal workers. Numbers of seasonal workers from eastern Europe have diminished, partly due to Brexit fears but also because Romania and Poland’s surging economies have persuaded their own workers to remain in their home countries . Separate field trials in China have shown the robot can pick tomatoes, and it has also been let loose on cauliflower. Nicholas Marston, chairman of the British Summer Fruits (BSF) trade body, says fruit growers were 15%-30% short of seasonal pickers last summer.

Source: The Guardian May 26, 2019 16:02 UTC