increasing efficiency

farm and unloading picked fruit. The company’s fth generation robot has been designed to be operated by existing farm personnel with only a few days’ training. The robots are compatible with all popular tabletop growing systems and work well in indoor and outdoor environments and weather conditions. One robot produces about the same daily output as a typical human picker.

Q. How does Dogtooth test its robots?

A: Dogtooth has been working closely with growers in the UK around the world to develop commercial robotic fruit picking solutions since 2016, e.g. Hugh Lowe Farms in Kent and Burlington Berries in Australia. Dogtooth also operates polytunnels in South Cambridgeshire for R&D and demonstration purposes.

Q. What do you think are the main challenges for the fruit-growing industry in the UK now, and in the future?

A: Beyond the short-term pain caused by high energy prices, one of the most important challenges facing the UK’s fruit-growing industry is the recruitment of enough seasonal agricultural workers. Trade body British Summer Fruits estimated that £36.5M of berry fruits was wasted in 2021 due only to lack of harvest labour. Although harvest automation will ultimately eliminate up to 50% of the soft fruit industry’s labour requirement, growers still need a dependable supply of human labour now if they are to thrive (and be in a position to invest in new technology). Another important challenge is to accurately forecast yield so growers can make informed crop management and recruitment decisions and increase supply chain e ciency.

Q. How does Dogtooth think it can help the industry to overcome these challenges, and what are the company’s future plans?

Q. What is Dogtooth Technologies Ltd?

A: Dogtooth is a Cambridge-based technology start-up selling state-of-the-art intelligent robots for soft fruit picking. The company, which was started in 2015, is pioneering the commercial exploitation of autonomous robots in farm environments.

Q. Who is behind Dogtooth?

A: CEO Dr Duncan Robertson has a PhD in machine learning and computer vision from Cambridge University. Over the last two decades, he has had a pivotal role in the success of several high-growth technology start-ups exploiting emerging machine learning capabilities in new commercial applications, e.g. as founder of online apparel start-up Metail. COO Ed Herbert studied engineering mathematics in Bristol and has spent his career working with various technology startups including Metail. Software CTO Dr Anders Johannson is a lecturer at Bristol University and was founder and CTO of computer vision start-up CrowdVision, which sells computer vision systems for crowd monitoring. Hardware CTO Frank Tully led the development of UK Biobank’s massive cryogenic robotic sample storage facility. Board chair Robert Marshall was formerly CEO of the

£1.5Bn turnover Marshall of Cambridge Group and is founder of Martlet Capital Ltd, a Cambridgebased deep tech investor. Director Marion Regan MBE is managing director and co-owner of Hugh Lowe Farms Ltd, one of the best-known berry producers in the UK, and a director of its sister company Burlington Berries Pty Ltd. Director Zoe Morgan has a marketing and buying background, having been the group marketing director of The Co-Operative Group, Boots and HBoS.

Q. How do Dogtooth’s robots work, and for what purpose are they suitable?

A: The company’s agship product is a fruit picking robot that uses state-of-the-art computer vision to pick delicate berry fruits with nearhuman visual acuity and dexterity. The robot uses stereo vision to locate ripe berries and then picks by gripping and cutting the stalk (which helps to control cross contamination and bruising). Next, the robot’s patented on-board inspection system inspects each picked berry, rejecting unsaleable ones and distributing the remainder amongst punnets according to supermarket criteria. The robots work in teams of 8–12, each team being supervised by a human operator who is responsible for moving robots around the

A: Dogtooth is actively marketing its fth generation strawberry picking robot this year. Compared to previous iterations, this one is much faster and, thanks to new lithium ion batteries and built-in illumination, capable of picking for up to 16 hours a day and even overnight. One advantage of overnight picking is that shelf life can be dramatically improved. But from the customer’s perspective, a more important bene t may be the possibility of exing robotic harvesting capacity to address production peaks by working double shifts.

Dogtooth’s harvesting robots form part of a complete harvest management o ering aimed at increasing e ciency and reducing labour costs. The o ering includes software for planning the harvest schedule (and therefore making e ective use of robotic capacity) and a low cost computer vision module for crop condition monitoring and yield forecasting for which there has been high demand in 2023.

Dogtooth’s future plans include increasing manufacturing output and developing robots for new applications, including apple and raspberry harvesting. As part of Agri-OpenCore, a collaborative R&D project part-funded by DEFRA/ Innovate UK and led by Phil Pearson of APS Group, the company is collaborating closely with other leading UK agri-robotics players including the University of Lincoln to accelerate the delivery of robotic automation in UK horticulture.