The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Humanoids
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Business
    • Financial
      • Investments
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Earnings
    • Markets
      • Agriculture
      • Healthcare
      • Logistics
      • Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Security
    • RBR50
      • RBR50 Winners 2025
      • RBR50 Winners 2024
      • RBR50 Winners 2023
      • RBR50 Winners 2022
      • RBR50 Winners 2021
  • Resources
    • Automated Warehouse Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • eBooks
    • Publications
      • Automated Warehouse
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

StrawBot follows harvesters to improve strawberry picking productivity

By Mike Oitzman | March 8, 2021

Human strawberry pickers work with Ag Pro Robotics StrawBot robot in a field

StrawBot keeps pace with the human pickers as they work down a row of strawberries during harvest season. (Credit: Ag Pro Robotics)

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 have been many attempts to develop an autonomous strawberry picking robot, yet no company has perfected this process. It is difficult to both identify ripe berries and to pick them without damaging the fragile fruit. Ag Pro Robotics is taking a different tack with the StrawBot. The vision is to automate the task of collecting full strawberry trays from the human workers and deliver the full trays to the end of row collection points.

“StrawBot eliminates all the walking human pickers have to do,” said Raleigh Nielsen co-founder, CTO and motion control specialist for Ag Pro Robotics. “It keeps the human pickers picking – and that’s enough to yield substantial cost savings.”

According to Nielsen, StrawBot provides farmers with labor cost savings of roughly 18-35%. It also enables pickers to cover 15-20% more ground. For strawberry fields that are several hundreds of thousands of acres, this increase in harvested acreage is considerable.

The StrawBot robot eliminates the non-productive work of carrying full trays out of the aisles, and enables the human pickers to be more productive at the delicate task of picking berries. StrawBot tracks the berry pickers along the aisle and paces itself to stay close to the pickers.

“But perhaps one of the biggest benefits to StrawBot is the fact that it still allows human workers to do their job as they’ve always done it,” said Nielsen. “It doesn’t change how the planters plant or the harvesters harvest. It just makes them more efficient.”

The StrawBot chassis is adjustable to accommodate 48-, 52- and 64-inch bed widths and is available in two and four harvester sizes. The vehicle is all electric and can even be equipped with an optional solar panel to help recharge the battery during the work day. This option can extend the working time of the machine.

In addition to improving annual harvests, GPS navigation, camera systems, data analysis and other automation technologies also enable new levels of traceability for farmers. This data helps the farmer to make better decisions about how to manage production and harvesting.

Takeaways

StrawBot is a new design for agriculture automation that seeks to make human farm labor more productive rather than directly replacing labor. Strawberry picking remains one of the more difficult tasks to automate, yet StrawBot offers a solution that can be the difference between profitability and loss for farmers. StrawBot boosts productivity up to 35%, according to Ag Pro Robotics.

There are several companies pursuing this market for collaborative agriculture robots. Burro is another company (based in Salinas, California) who are developing an autonomous, load hauling, agriculture support robot. Like StawBot, Burro will both follow a human worker, as well as drive loads across the farm to deliver items. Unlike StrawBot, Burro is not currently designed to fit into the strawberry field row spacing. Another company also in this market is Future Acres, with their autonomous mobile robot: Carry. The Carry robot is a general purpose autonomous transport for the farm. It is capable of following a worker around, or traversing autonomously on the farm to different locations for pickup and delivery tasks.

About The Author

Mike Oitzman

Mike Oitzman is Senior Editor of WTWH's Robotics Group and founder of the Mobile Robot Guide. Oitzman is a robotics industry veteran with 25-plus years of experience at various high-tech companies in the roles of marketing, sales and product management. Mike has a BS in Systems Engineering from UCSD and an MBA from Golden Gate University. He can be reached at moitzman@wtwhmedia.com.

Tell Us What You Think! Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles Read More >

headshots of Tim Bucher, and Sean Walters with podcast artwork.
Farmer-first future: Agtonomy’s approach to smart agriculture
Applied Intuition raises $600M for autonomous driving tech
Illustration of Reservoir Farms.
Reservoir Farms opens applications for inaugural cohort
farm-ng Amiga robot. It said its new software interface makes the Amiga modular robot even easier to use, with improved implement control and repeatable task automation.
farm-ng updates Amiga robot software for small, midsize farms

RBR50 Innovation Awards

“rr
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Robotics Professionals.
The Robot Report Listing Database

Latest Episode of The Robot Report Podcast

Automated Warehouse Research Reports

Sponsored Content

  • How to Set Up a Planetary Gear Motion with SOLIDWORKS
  • Sager Electronics and its partners, logos shown here, will exhibit at the 2025 Robotics Summit & Expo. Sager Electronics to exhibit at the Robotics Summit & Expo
  • The Shift in Robotics: How Visual Perception is Separating Winners from the Pack
  • An AutoStore automated storage and retrieval grid. Webinar to provide automated storage and retrieval adoption advice
  • Smaller, tougher devices for evolving demands
The Robot Report
  • Automated Warehouse
  • RoboBusiness Event
  • Robotics Summit & Expo
  • About The Robot Report
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Humanoids
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Business
    • Financial
      • Investments
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Earnings
    • Markets
      • Agriculture
      • Healthcare
      • Logistics
      • Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Security
    • RBR50
      • RBR50 Winners 2025
      • RBR50 Winners 2024
      • RBR50 Winners 2023
      • RBR50 Winners 2022
      • RBR50 Winners 2021
  • Resources
    • Automated Warehouse Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • eBooks
    • Publications
      • Automated Warehouse
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe