Press Release: advanced.farm receives grant funding to support R&D for robotic apple harvest

The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission has awarded a grant to advanced.farm to support its development of a robotic apple harvesting machine.  Building on its position as the leader in robotic strawberry harvesting, advanced.farm will now pursue apples as part of its mission to automate ag’s impossible tasks.  “Our machines are picking twice as many berries per hour as they were at this time last year”, said Director of Business Development at advanced.farm, Peter Ferguson. advanced.farm currently has several fleets of robotic strawberry harvest machines deployed with leading growers throughout California.  The company, which closed a $25M Series B round last year, has developed its own custom robots, soft grippers, camera, and autonomous driving chassis. “Most of our technology stack will be able to be applied to apples and other crops. The apple growers we have worked with in Washington are excited about the future of automation in agriculture and have been very supportive of our work.”

advanced.farm plans to use the grant funds to build its first prototype robotic apple harvest machine and hire for key positions, including software and mechanical engineers, as well as field operators. 

Harvest automation has been a key focus of innovation in agriculture in recent years. Ines Hanrahan, executive director of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission said “We urgently need new solutions to ensure our crops can be picked in the future to secure the national food supply chain. The WA Tree Fruit Research Commission is pleased to be working with advanced.farm for the coming three years, since this company has a proven track record of getting harvest automation solutions all the way into the field and in grower hands.”