Plantation robots as harvesting assistants

Fruit growers and winemakers know only too well that very few machines capable of assisting agricultural workers are able to fit between vines or trees planted too close together or on sloping ground. Much of the work still needs to be performed by hand. Leaf-trimming, soil cultivation, mulching and protecting against pests are all time-intensive activities. But without them, it’s impossible to have a good harvest. Researchers at the TU Dresden’s Chair of Agricultural Systems Engineering have developed the Elwobot to spare humans the need to perform monotonous work.

The plantation robot for wine and fruit-growing autonomously navigates the narrow aisles. A laser scanner fitted to the front of the vehicle shows it the way, enabling it to go around obstacles like its human colleagues working alongside it. As the chassis is based on four single-wheel drives and single-wheel steering, it is extremely agile and manoeuvrable. The Elwobot assesses the state of the grape or foliage growth via a 3D scan, enabling it to apply pesticides to the fruit or mulch the aisles. But the workers still need to do the picking themselves, because, according to its developers, the plantation robot cannot yet meet the quotas of manual farmworkers. A revised prototype is set to be launched on the market in the mid-2020s.