Agricultural AI specialist Metafarmers announced on November 20 that it has successfully completed the "Regulatory Innovation Robot Demonstration Project: Cucumber Robot Development and Demonstration Project," which was supported by the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement.
This project, which began in March of last year, was carried out with the goal of developing a "gripper (robotic hand) with a 99% harvesting success rate." Metafarmers integrated AI vision technology based on visual servoing (robot control using image sensors) with the gripper to implement a stable automatic harvesting system.
Metafarmers is currently developing a multi-purpose agricultural robot called "Omni Farmer." This robot can handle various agricultural tasks such as harvesting, pollination, sorting, and monitoring on a single platform. With its dedicated gripper and AI recognition technology, it can be applied to traditional farms, vertical farms, and greenhouses.
The hardware research team at Metafarmers repeatedly tested the robot at the farms of demand institutions, verifying gripping and harvesting methods that minimize crop damage and perfecting an optimal structure to maintain the commercial quality of the produce. In addition, by leveraging cucumber growth data, the team applied digital twin technology and multi-object recognition algorithms to enhance the precision of automated harvesting technology that adapts to farm environments.
© Metafarmers
Through this pilot test, Metafarmers has confirmed the field applicability of automatic cucumber harvesting technology, which is rarely commercialized worldwide. The company plans to commercialize a universal model that can be expanded to various crops simply by replacing the gripper on the same platform. Currently, Metafarmers is conducting demonstrations at a large smart farm in Seosan ahead of the market launch of the Omni Farmer physical AI robot for strawberry harvesting.
Lee Kyuhwa, CEO of Metafarmers, said, "This research proves that agricultural automation can go beyond simple experiments to operate in real farm environments. Moving forward, we will expand our research to include various crops such as cucumbers, apples, and leafy vegetables, continuing to drive technological innovation that enhances the productivity and sustainability of agriculture."
Source: The Asia Business Daily
