Fieldwork Robotics to test new berry harvesting robot at Costa Farms in Australia
UK company Fieldwork Robotics will start trials with a new harvesting robot at Costa berry farms in Australia over the next 12 months, with field trials taking place from Q1 2025. According to Fieldwork, an enhanced design allows the robot to harvest at the same speed and quality as human pickers.
The Fieldworker 1 fully autonomous robot allows more accurate detection of berry ripeness and has a heightened picking speed. The Fieldworker 1 stands just over 2 metres in height. Building on recent advancements facilitated through the Innovate UK-backed Berry Bot and Berry AI projects, the new robot provides growers with a predictable cost per berry. This enables growers to augment human labour while better managing their operating costs and overall profit margins, Fieldwork Robotics says.
Fieldwork Founder and Chief Science Officer, Martin Stoelen emphasises that the company has made huge progress in the development of its technology. Spectral frequency is being utilised to remove any human bias from the analysis of berry ripeness, he says. “The expectation is to harvest without compromising on quality.”
The Fieldworker 1 will have the capacity to work in a fleet, with one operator running multiple robots across the field. This significantly reduces the labour intensity of the harvesting process and improves harvesting efficiency, Fieldwork Robotics says.
Solving a real world problem
Costa Group is a leading producer of fresh fruit and vegetables. David Fulton, Fieldwork CEO, points out that partnerships with companies like Costa Group are a testament to the effectiveness of its solution. Presently 30% of the grower’s crop remains unharvested going to waste, according to Fulton.
“Our robots solve a real world problem for growers. Fieldwork is strengthening our offering to growers operating in the fresh raspberry industry. We have secured a healthy pipeline of contracts with some of the world’s largest berry growers operating in our target markets, Australia, Portugal and the US.” Fieldwork says it is currently on track to begin its Series A fundraise in 2025.
Costa Group explains it has a strong focus on exploring new technology to enhance harvest operations and is looking forward to trialling the Fieldwork technology in its farms over the next year.
Revenue strategy
Earlier, Fieldwork Robotics has outlined its revenue strategy through three main channels. The first channel is harvesting-as-a-service, where robots are leased to growers for a periodic fee based on the number of berries harvested during that time. Each robot will need an operator from Fieldwork Robotics, with one operator managing up to 30 robots.
The second revenue channel involves the sale and maintenance of robots. In this model, customers own the robots outright, benefiting from long-term savings, while Fieldwork Robotics gains immediate revenue from the sale and ongoing income from maintenance services.
The third channel focuses on data collection and analysis. All robots from Fieldwork Robotics will gather continuous data on crops, providing customers with comprehensive reports on yield projections and crop maturity levels.
