Western Growers selects these 13 companies for harvest automation

Irvine, Calif.-based Western Growers has selected 13 companies for the first cohort of its Global Harvest Automation Initiative, a project that aims to automate 50% of specialty crop harvest within 10 years by speeding up the commercialization of harvest automation innovations.

The companies chosen for the cohort all specialize in agricultural robotics, mechanization and automation and will receive exclusive resources to help them launch and scale, according to a news release.

Resources include:

• Mentoring;
• Field trials; and
• Case studies.

Most importantly, the cohort will receive systems integration to integrate industry-standard components (called technology stack) into each company’s product roadmap so each company’s robots can get into fields and markets faster. 

“Most harvest startups build the entire technology stack themselves — from imaging and artificial intelligence to robotic end-effectors and automated movement up and down the fields. Western Growers’ Global Harvest Automation Initiative will now build this technology stack for them,” Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation at Western Growers, said in the release. “The innovators in this cohort are both startups and established companies that will get help integrating with industry-standard tractors, robot arms and sensors, which can commoditize up to 60–80% of the startup’s technology stack.”

These are the companies selected to receive hands-on support for all aspects of business for rapid scaling:

• Advanced Farm Technologies: provides advanced farming tools, such as automated strawberry harvesting robots, for harvesting services;
• Antobot: builds a team of small intelligent agriculture robots with advanced computer vision and robotics technology;
• Augean Robotics: helps solve the labor problem facing farmers by making autonomous collaborative robots;
• Earth Rover: makes field robots that automate scouting, harvesting and weeding, and provides farmers with per-plant data from seed to gate;
• FarmWise: designs driverless tractors that use machine learning and computer vision, rather than herbicides, to eradicate weeds from farmers' fields;
• FFRobotics: develops a reliable, robust harvesting platform emulating human-hand picking process for efficient, cost-effective and bruise-free fruit harvesting;
• Muddy Machines: builds a new generation of field robots that help growers manage labor-intensive crops by conducting fieldwork;
• Oxbo International Corporation: designs, manufactures and distributes innovative harvesting equipment and related products;
• Ramsay Highlander: manufactures specialized harvesting aids for the vegetable growing industry;
• Ripe Robotics: builds and manages fruit-picking robots;
• Robotics Plus: enables sustainable growth of the horticultural and fiber industries through robotics and automation;
• SPUDNIK Equipment Company LLC: manufactures potato harvesting and handling equipment; and
• Strio AI: automates labor-intensive tasks for specialty growers, starting with runner cutting for strawberries.

Each innovator was selected based on market traction and potential for successful scale as well as feedback from Western Grower members and industry groups, including the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, according to the release.

GHAI Subject Matter Experts, a group with expertise in precision ag, robotics, artificial intelligence, equipment manufacturing, harvest automation and grower-shipper operations, will work with the cohort on priorities that can accelerate their development efforts.

Experts include:

• Mike Dentinger of Trimble, plus four Trimble experts;
• Andreas Fuchs and Fabian Henrici of Bosch in North America;
• Kathryn Van Weerdhuizen, Scott Korthuis (retired) and Chris Schloesser (retired) of Oxbo International Corp.;
• David Offerdahl and Evan Steel of Spudnik Equipment Co. LLC;
• Frank Maconachy and Greg Weisenfeld of Ramsay Highlander;
• Michael Christensen, formerly of Driscoll’s;
• Keith Veselka of NWFM LLC;
• Scott Jacky of Red Rooster Consulting;
• Don Wickstrum of ProMach;
• Dominic Milanon and Soummya Datta of Milano Technical Group;
• Ken Hite of All-Phase Co;
• Jeff Morrison of Grimmway Farms;
• Neill Callis of Turlock Fruit Co.;
• Josh Ruiz of Church Brothers Farms;
• Kevin Andrew of Illume Agriculture; and
• Mike Van Pelt of Superfresh Growers.

For more information, visit the website.