Kubota and their partner Tevel have received the DLG Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022 award for their jointly developed automated fruit picking system.

The harvester unit can operate several wired drones for the picking process

The award was handed out by the German agricultural society, DLG - Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft - during a recent online session. 

Kubota and Tevel say they teamed up to address the challenge of labour shortages in fruit harvesting by developing an automated fruit picking system, offering a solution for any farm size through its modular approach. They say the modular concept of wired fruit-picking drones and flexible logistics allows " . .various configurations for individual farm requirements and enables full compatibility with established harvesting methods". 

President and representative director of Kubota Corporation Mr Yuichi Kitao, said, “Our vision for 2030 is to be an 'Essentials Innovator for Supporting Life'. This DLG Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022 award is an encouragement to continue our investments in sustainable innovations in the fields of food, water, and the environment, looking ahead to the post-Covid-19 society.” 

One possible configuration is the harvester swarm with small and lightweight picking units combined with different logistics solutions

Peter van der Vlugt, general manager of Kubota’s Innovation Centre in Europe, added, “We are particularly proud of our collaboration with Tevel. We partnered with one of the most advanced technology companies in fruit picking. Kubota is committed to help solve fruit growers’ problems in providing security for harvesting timing and quality and to deal with the increasing labour issues that growers are facing nowadays."