Frontier IP Group Plc (LON:FIPP), which specialises in commercialising university intellectual property, has today announced portfolio company Fieldwork Robotics has entered into a collaboration agreement with leading UK soft-fruit grower Hall Hunter Partnership to prototype and field test a raspberry harvesting robot system.
The agreement with Hall Hunter Partnership, the country’s biggest raspberry grower, is an important milestone for University of Plymouth spin-out Fieldwork Robotics in bringing its agricultural robot technology to market. Frontier IP owns 27.5 per cent of the Company.
Fieldwork’s patent-pending technology consists of dedicated grippers, adaptable soft-robotic arms, sensors and software able to identify supermarket-ready fruit.
Proof of concept has been shown in laboratory conditions, but the collaboration will enable the Company to field test and further refine the technology by working in a range of environments, such as fields and polytunnels, under different climatic and light conditions. Field tests are expected to start later this year.
Once the technology has been successfully tested with raspberries, among the softest and most easily damaged fruit to pick, then it can be easily adapted to other fruit and vegetables. The Company is developing proof-of-concept robots for other crops following interest from leading agribusinesses.
The academic behind the technology, Dr Martin Stoelen, Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Plymouth, is working on a tomato harvesting project with the Shanghai Jiaotong University in China. The University of Plymouth has also received grants to develop applications for cauliflowers and other vegetables.
Hall Hunter Partnership grows 14,000 tonnes of raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Its major customers include Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Tesco. The family-run business owns farms and glass houses in Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex in the UK and, to produce year-round, also runs a farm in Portugal.
Fieldwork Robotics has been incorporated to develop and commercialise the work of Dr Stoelen and his team at the University of Plymouth.
Hall Hunter Partnership chief operating officer David Green said: “HHP has always led the soft fruit industry in pushing forward productivity and quality standards on our Farms and Nurseries. This partnership with Fieldwork Robotics is an exciting new development to pioneer the harvesting of raspberries robotically at a commercial scale. We are looking forward to our first human-free hectare to be picked together ”
Frontier IP Group Plc chief executive Neil Crabb said: “Working with industry partners is absolutely vital to ensuring university IP is developed in a way that meets real-world needs and can be scaled up properly. We’re delighted to collaborate with one of the UK’s leading soft-fruit growers to take Fieldwork Robotics’ technology through the next stage of its development.”
Fieldwork Robotics founder and director Dr Martin Stoelen said: “The collaboration agreement we’ve signed with Hall Hunter is a big step forward for Fieldwork and the team at the University of Plymouth. I’m looking forward to seeing our robots operating in the field. “
