Dogtooth - a revolutionary approach to picking

The FoodTalk Show

Dr Duncan Robertson, from Dogtooth, joins Ollie Lloyd and Susie Warren-Smith, to talk about a new way to address the labour shortages that are impacting seasonal fruit and vegetables, a problem that Susie has seen first hand in her role as Chair and Executive Director, Produced in Kent.

Dogtooth, are working on a revolutionary plan, which involves bringing robotics to farming. This isn't a far off dream, it is actually happening and at scale in farms in the UK. Using computer vision and machine learning, they are creating robots that can pick ripe soft fruits. Imagine an army of robots, often working through the night, collection the best berries, under the watchful eye of human managers who make sure things don't go wrong.

Dogtooth, doesn't want this kind of technology to be limited to mega farms and is exploring ways of working with small scale producers too. Is it possible that in 20 years all the strawberries at Wimbledon will picked by robots?

Edited by Stella Gent