Agriculture is an incredibly labor-intensive industry, and while farming automation has made major strides over the years, easily damaged crops like fruit often must still be harvested by hand.

California-based startup Abundant Robotics Inc. aims to solve this problem with its prototype apple-picking robot, and today the company announced that it has secured $10 million in a funding round led by Google Ventures. BayWa AG and Tellus Partners also participated in the round, as did existing investors Yamaha Motor Company, KPCB Edge and Comet Labs.

Apples are difficult for robots to harvest because they do not grow in a uniform pattern, making them harder to spot, and they are also easily damaged if not handled gently. Abundant Robotics’ prototype overcomes the first problem by using computer vision, and Chief Executive Dan Steere claims that the robot can spot apples with roughly the same accuracy as humans and can even work at night. To pick the fruit without damaging it, the robot uses a large vacuum hose that sucks the apples off of the tree and deposits them in a container.

Abundant Robotics tested its robot in the U.S. last fall and is currently testing it in Australia, which is now in apple harvest season. Although the robot is still just a prototype, Steere says its performance has been promising.

“The results convinced us that we’re on the right path to scale up to a full commercial system,” Steere told MIT Technology Review. “Our commercial system will pick at rates that match crews of tens of people.” Steere said advancements in growing techniques have also made automation easier, as growers are cultivating dwarf trees that are low to the ground and have more easily accessible apples.

New forms of automation often put human workers out of a job, but Steere says that the agriculture industry is already seeing a shrinking workforce for fruit pickers, and he believes that his company’s robots will be beneficial to everyone.

“Look at the history of agriculture going back to the 1800s,” Steere said. “Machinery has changed how harvesting’s done, and huge benefits to society have come from that.”

Photo: Abundant Robotics