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In another sign that smart technology is transforming the farming industry, engineers at the University of Cambridge have developed a robot that uses machine learning to pick lettuce. The robot, dubbed "Vegebot", has been designed to first identify iceberg lettuce and then decide if it is healthy and ready to be picked, the university said Monday. If this is the case, it will then cut the lettuce without damaging it. The Vegebot was first trained to identify and pick the delicate crop in a laboratory and has now undertaken successful tests in a range of field conditions. The university added that while the prototype device was neither as fast or efficient as a human, it showed how robots could be used in agriculture on a wider scale.

Vegebot, a vegetable-picking robot, uses machine learning to identify and harvest a commonplace, but challenging, agricultural crop. A team at the University of Cambridge initially trained Vegebot to recognize and harvest iceberg lettuce in the laboratory. It has now been successfully tested in a variety of field conditions in cooperation with G's Growers, a local fruit and vegetable co-operative. Although the prototype is nowhere near as fast or efficient as a human worker, it demonstrates how the use of robotics in agriculture might be expanded, even for crops like iceberg lettuce which are particularly challenging to harvest mechanically. The researchers published their results in The Journal of Field Robotics.

The'Vegebot', developed by a team at the University of Cambridge, was initially trained to recognise and harvest iceberg lettuce in a lab setting. It has now been successfully tested in a variety of field conditions in cooperation with G's Growers, a local fruit and vegetable co-operative. Although the prototype is nowhere near as fast or efficient as a human worker, it demonstrates how the use of robotics in agriculture might be expanded, even for crops like iceberg lettuce which are particularly challenging to harvest mechanically. The results are published in The Journal of Field Robotics. Crops such as potatoes and wheat have been harvested mechanically at scale for decades, but many other crops have to date resisted automation.