Agriculture

Company to accelerate growth and scale production to help farmers address increasing threat from herbicide-resistant weeds

John Deere and Bear Flag Robotics discuss what their partnership means for the future of autonomous tractors.

This is the second agricultural robotics acquisition by John Deere in the past four years. It acquired Blue River Technology in 2017 for $305 million.

Mycionics developed an autonomous mushroom harvesting solution leveraging robotics and machine vision.

The SRI International spinoff failed to develop market traction and raise funding to continue operating. It’s currently liquidating all assets.

Scythe Robotics launches a commercial, autonomous mower to help improve productivity of professional landscapers.

Rock picking company Terraclear picks up $25M in series A funding, bringing their total funding to date to $38M.

Goldberg on Ambi Robotics’ Sim2Real technology, how Dex-Net is powering its robots, lessons learned over the years, and the challenges of universal grasping.

Root AI, a Somerville, Mass.-based startup developing the Virgo harvesting robot for indoor farms, was acquired by AppHarvest for $60 million. AppHarvest is investing approximately $10 million in cash and the remaining balance in AppHarvest common shares to acquire Root AI. Founded in 2018, Root AI’s 19 full-time employees are expected to join AppHarvest’s technology…

Packaging operations continue to embrace automation as a way to reduce labor costs and workplace injuries while improving the efficiency and quality of packaged goods. But the use of automation isn’t evenly distributed, with large consumer packaged goods producers running with more automation than smaller packaging firms. One area ripe for increased automation are operations…

The tractors can perform pre-programmed tasks without a driver, or an operator can use Monarch’s automation features including Gesture and Shadow modes to have it follow a worker on the job.

California-based Ag Pro Robotics launched a semi-autonomous strawberry harvesting robot called StrawBot. The machine is designed to support human strawberry pickers by autonomously following them through the field during harvesting, carrying the full baskets of strawberries to the end of each row. StrawBot supports human berry harvesters Strawberry harvesting is a difficult task, and there…

Welcome to Episode 31 of The Robot Report Podcast, which brings conversations with robotics innovators straight to you. Join us each week for discussions with leading roboticists, innovative robotics companies, and other key members of the robotics community. You can subscribe to The Robot Report Podcast on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Spotify and more. Please subscribe to the podcast and leave us a…

Bear Flag Robotics, a Calif.-based developer of autonomous driving technology for tractors, closed a $7.9 million seed extension funding round. After closing a $4.6 million seed round two years ago, Bear Flag Robotics has now raised a total of $12.5 million. Founded in 2017, Bear Flag Robotics will use the new funding to expand its…

Monarch Tractor said its fully electric autonomous tractor is a platform for features to enable sustainable farming with actionable intelligence, clean energy, and numerous safety features.

University of California researchers are developing an autonomous mobile robot to sample leaves and measure their water potential.

Robotics investments slowed somewhat in October 2020, but transportation, healthcare, and software remained strong.

France-based Naio Technologies and Germany-based VARTA are collaborating on autonomous charging stations for agricultural robots that depend on renewable energy sources for minimal human supervision.

Service robot sales set new records last year, led by logistics robots at 110% sales growth and 28% growth in medicaal robots, reported the International Federation of Robotics.

After reflecting on his travels across the U.S. and the problem of food insecurity, columnist Oliver Mitchell talks to a roboticist automating mushroom harvesting, demonstrating robotics’ potential in agriculture.

The Giumarra Companies and Reliable Robotics have partnered on an autonomous test flight program to streamline the supply chain from farms to retailers for fresh produce.

In September 2020, healthcare robotics, drones for inspection, and industrial automation received funding, but transactions slowed for autonomous vehicle developers.