Help Unwanted? Driverless Tractors and Bots Are Coming To a Farm Near You
They’re here — finally. The robots growers have been hearing about for decades are not just being tested in the lab, or even the field — they are out working in U.S. orchards and vineyards, writes David Eddy at Growing Produce. More than 1,700 specialty crop growers, start-up engineers, investors, and others affiliated with the industry recently attended FIRA USA 2023 in Salinas, CA, to see the latest robots for fruit and vegetable production in action.
FIRA’s first day was devoted to education — there was a tremendous amount of information to be had — while the final two days were chiefly devoted to equipment demonstrations in a vegetable field, as well as areas set up to look like both orchards and vineyards.
The Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics (GOFAR), a French nonprofit that promotes and develops agricultural robotics, organized FIRA USA. There were also two co-organizers, THE VINE, an agriculture, food, and biotech innovation network based in Davis, CA, and Western Growers.
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