Strawberry-picking robots not yet up to human standards, but getting there

Any 4-year old can pick a strawberry, but machines, for all their artificial intelligence, can't seem to figure it out. Bob Pitzer, an expert on robots and co-founder of Harvest CROO Robotics, says the hardest thing for them is just finding the fruit. The berries hide behind leaves in unpredictable places.

Pitzer's strawberry-picking robot is about to meet its latest test. It's rolling, ever so slowly, into a strawberry field near Duette, Fla.

Pitzer says the robots are able to find and pick more than 50 percent of the ripe berries. That's not yet up to human standards. A typical work crew, he says, manages to pick anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of the berries that it should.

Also, he admits, the machine is slower than human hands. On the other hand, it has some advantages. It can work right through the night, when berries are cooler and less fragile.

Another two years, he says, and this machine will be in the fields working for real. "There's quirks to work out, but it's getting there. We're close," he says.

Read more at NPR (Dan Charles)