The Robot Report

Tevel Aerobotics Gets Off Ground to Help Orchard Owners Pick Ripe Fruit

Organization: Tevel Aerobotics Technologies
Country: Israel
Website: https://www.tevel-tech.com/
Year Founded: 2016
Number of Employees: 50

Tevel leverages tethered drones and AI to autonomously pick ripe fruit from trees

Description:
In 2020, Tevel Aerobotics demonstrated the ability to use a tethered drone to pick ripe fruit using vision and AI. The innovation is a combination of AI-vision to identify ripe fruit and a tethered drone for continuous harvesting operations. The Tevel drones are tethered to the battery in an autonomous mobile base that enables the drones to fly continuously without stopping to recharge.

Analysis:
Tevel developed a drone-based solution that uses vision and AI to determine if fruit is ripe and then pick it from the tree using an attached arm and gripper. The solution is designed for the fruit tree harvesting market, as fruit farmers struggle to hire seasonal pickers and the work requires dexterity and extended reach to acquire fruit high in the tree. The fruit gripper on the drone is also novel in the spinning motion used to remove fruit from the branch. The heart of the system is the AI-based vision system that can identify when the fruit is ripe and perfect for picking. The company is initially focusing on the apple tree market, however, the system can also pick peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots. The company deployed to orchards in Israel in 2020 and is expanding to Spain in 2021. – Mike Oitzman
[caption id="attachment_59266" align="aligncenter" width="770"]Tevel autonomous fruit picking drone The Tevel drone is tethered to a mobile battery unit so that it can fly non-stop. | Image credit: Tevel Areobotics[/caption]

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