Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** harvest automation is urgently…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** harvest automation is urgently needed to alleviate labor shortage and rising labor cost for apple and other specialty crops. Moreover, pre-sorting or removal of low-quality or defective apples at the time of harvest in orchard can help growers and packers achieve significant cost savings in postharvest storage and packing. This standard research and extension project is therefore intended to leverage the significant progress we have made recently on robotic harvesting and in-field pre-sorting technologies to develop and transfer an automated and integrated mobile system (aims) for commercial harvest, in-field pre-sorting and quality recording of harvested apples. Efficient, dexterous robotic harvesting modules and a low-cost, compact pre-sorting system will be developed and integrated with a new autonomous mobile platform capable of automatic handling of pre-sorted apples. The new aims will be able to work under different lighting conditions during day and at night. Extensive field tests and demonstrations of the new robotic harvester and the aims will be conducted in commercial orchards in michigan, pennsylvania and washington. Outreach activities with growers, researchers, extension personnel, and k-12 and college students will be carried out through the project website, podcasts, videos, social media, field days, publications, etc., to broadly disseminate, and accelerate adoption of, the developed technologies. Open-access libraries for AI models and multi-modal sensor data collected for apples will be created to promote r & d and facilitate collaboration among researchers and technology developers in robotic harvesting and quality grading technologies for apples and other specialty crops. Comprehensive economic/labor analyses will be conducted of the impact of the developed technologies and different technology adoption models and strategies on the apple industry and future labor force.