StraBot: a Soft, dexterous soft manipulator with hybrid sensing for strawberry harvesting and monitoring
Automating strawberry picking is the holy grail of agriculture. It is backbreaking work, the point at which you pick the strawberry is highly variable, and requires delicate touch when pulling. Soft robotics is a technology that has been developed over the past decade and can potentially solve this problem. Dr. Pritts is an expert in strawberry agriculture, and Dr. Shepherd is an expert in soft actuation and sensing. This work will finally explore the potential for soft robotics to solve this critical agricultural need by creating robotic manipulators that can pluck strawberries at high yield.
