Agaricus Robotic Harvester

Our goal is to develop the world's first commercial mushroom harvesting robot, offering end-users game-changing productivity, de-risked labour availability, increased yield and reduced food waste. The consortium is led by Agaricus Robotics Ltd, a spin-out of the University of Lincoln, and supported by Littleport Mushroom Farm. Agaricus Robotics' innovative robotic mushroom harvesting system is equipped with an intelligent vision system combined with a novel soft gripper to pick mushrooms. On bench tests, AR's robotic system has shown globally leading performance, able to pick \>96% of mushrooms without damaging the target or any adjacent mushrooms.

Agaricus robotics mushroom harvester will be further developed and demonstrated on-farm. This includes the development of a novel robotic arm, designed to operate in tight and harsh environments. In addition, we will onward develop a robotic system for on-farm trimming, weighing, and packing operations.

This project develops world-leading robotic harvest technology that will step-change labour productivity across mushroom farms. Automated harvesting removes critical labour constraints and reduces the costs of production. It expands the UK's capacity in advanced robotics, developing innovative digital technologies with global market opportunities.