The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has given an award of $1,123,463 to the University of California, Davis to develop “relatively small, inexpensive robots” to aid in harvesting strawberries.
The announcement was made in late October as part of a series of USDA awards “to spur the development and use of robots in American agriculture production,” according to a USDA press release.
The release describes the UC Davis robotics grant as a “project that will develop relatively small, inexpensive robots to aid in human harvesting of strawberries.”