BerryAdopt: Driving On-Farm Adoption of Robotic Raspberry Pickers

The BerryAdopt project will evaluate selective robotic harvesting of fresh raspberries on commercial farms in the UK.

Raspberry production depends heavily on increasingly difficult-to-secure seasonal labour. Growers face rising costs and may leave fruit unharvested during peak periods. This project aims to improve productivity, reduce waste, and support the long-term sustainability of UK soft fruit production.

Over two harvest seasons, three robots will be deployed in commercial tunnels. The trials will evaluate fruit quality, pick performance, and day and night working. By demonstrating the technology under real commercial conditions and sharing results with the wider industry, the project will help growers understand:

* How robots will work alongside humans to reduce the cost to harvest raspberries and reduce the reliance on seasonal overseas labour.
* How to utilise data captured by the robot to send human/robot pick crews only where there are ripe berries that need to be picked.
* How the robots can reduce the amount of berries that go to waste due to lack of pickers to pick them, and reduce the cost impact of seasonal labour if the harvest comes earlier or later than predicated.