AI-Assisted Strawberry Harvesting: Robots Revolutionize Farm Labor
In the heart of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the strawberry farm Glantz in Hohen Wieschendorf is currently hosting an innovative development: the SHIVAA robot, a groundbreaking piece of technology designed to revolutionise strawberry farming.
Developed by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the SHIVAA robot employs AI and autonomous operation to identify and harvest ripe strawberries without human intervention. Special cameras combined with artificial intelligence enable the robot to autonomously detect ripe strawberries in the field, navigate precisely along plant rows, and gently pick the fruit using robotic arms. The harvested strawberries are then collected in an integrated storage box on the robot itself [1][2][4][5].
This technology allows SHIVAA to work continuously for about eight hours, harvesting roughly 15 kilograms of strawberries per hour. This addresses the challenges posed by labor shortages and rising wages in seasonal farm work. By automating the picking process, farmers can reduce dependence on manual pickers, thereby lowering labor costs and potentially increasing efficiency. The robot can operate at times when human labor is unavailable, such as during night shifts, offering flexibility in harvest operations [2][4].
The project behind SHIVAA, known as RoLand, envisions the robot as a cost-efficient solution that could be scaled for broader agricultural use. However, full commercial deployment is still years away, with further development and testing ongoing to optimise its performance and reliability in real field conditions [2][3].
The technology could help reduce labor costs, which account for about 60% of production costs, according to Jan van Leeuwen, manager of strawberry farm Glantz. Project leader Heiner Peters hopes that the robots will reduce production costs to a level that could make strawberries cheaper in supermarkets and help domestic production compete with imports. Van Leeuwen is satisfied if the price development of strawberries could at least be frozen in the medium term [1].
The SHIVAA robot was specifically designed for open-field cultivation, unlike comparable systems primarily functioning in greenhouses. It is being developed in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (HAW Hamburg) [1][5]. The developers emphasise that human labor is not intended to be replaced but supported and relieved by the technology.
With several years of development still needed before the robot can be mass-produced, the future of open-field strawberry farming is looking ripe with potential for automation and cost savings.
[1] https://www.dfki.de/roland/shivaarobot [2] https://www.dw.com/en/germany-develops-ai-robot-to-harvest-strawberries/a-56642666 [3] https://www.research-in-germany.de/en/topics/agriculture/robotics-in-agriculture [4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2021/05/13/ai-powered-robot-takes-over-strawberry-picking-in-germany/?sh=7a2c7d7b53d7 [5] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2615-z
The SHIVAA robot, employing AI and autonomous operation, is designed to revolutionize open-field strawberry farming, offering potential cost savings by automating the picking process. Developed in collaboration with HAW Hamburg, this technology could one day operate in larger quantities, providing aid to farmers facing labor shortages and high wages in seasonal work.
