A robot harvests tomatoes on the vine in Kent

The Agri-OpenCore consortium demonstrated robotic harvesting of tomatoes on the vine at Europa Nurseries in Kent on 19 October. APS Group, Dogtooth Technologies, the University of Lincoln and Extend Robotics worked on the project.

The project covered strawberry and high-wire tomato harvesting, alongside reusable ROS 2 software, farm navigation and safety work. Its closing account distinguishes commercial strawberry harvesting from tomato systems still moving towards commercialisation.

The tomato demonstration shows hardware working with a real crop, not a completed commercial rollout. The account does not give a harvest rate, fruit-damage rate or number of successful attempts.