Fruit Expert: This Robot Harvests Only Ripe Produce
At SPIEF, developers unveiled a Russian robotic orchard worker that gently harvests fruit and immediately sorts it according to predefined quality criteria.
Fruit harvesting has traditionally been one of the most demanding tasks in orchard management. The work is repetitive and physically taxing, requiring workers to lift and move loads by hand. Add exposure to changing weather conditions, including heat, rain, and temperature fluctuations. At the same time, harvesters must remain attentive, select only ripe fruit, and handle it carefully. Under these conditions, an AI-powered automated system can become an ideal field assistant.
A Gentle Robot Powered by Computer Vision
On June 3, visitors and participants at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026) were introduced to a robot from Electromotive that could become an indispensable tool for fruit growers. The system uses a tracked mobile platform and a robotic arm that moves between rows, identifies trees carrying ripe fruit through computer vision, and harvests the crop.
The robotic arm has already been used to harvest apples, pears, and mandarins. It can reach heights of up to 3.5 meters. "Last year, our robot completed pilot projects in the Moscow region at the Lenin State Farm. In a single day, it harvested 2.8 metric tons of produce. As a result, we found that one robot can fully replace the work of eight people," said Evgeny Kienya, Commercial Director of Electromotive.
The robot can be trained for multiple tasks beyond fruit picking. It can sort produce by color and size while simultaneously monitoring the health of fruit trees and assessing their condition.
According to the company, the Russian robotic system delivers higher-quality harvesting than comparable foreign systems. "This robot harvests very gently, causing even less damage than manual picking. The defect rate during manual harvesting reaches 20%, while the robot's rate is below 5%," Evgeny Kienya said.
Russian AI Technologies
The new robotic system is a grower's dream. The robot can operate for as long as farm operators require. It can complete a standard eight-hour work shift on a single battery charge, while battery replacement takes less than one minute.
The technical capabilities of the automated system make it useful across a wide range of agricultural tasks. During harvest, it can collect datasets for orchard analysis. After harvest, the robot can help process large volumes of finished produce. The platform can sort fruit into multiple categories. "It can separate spoiled fruit, sort by size, sort by color, essentially however the customer wants," explained Evgeny Takhtilov, Chief Technology Officer of Electromotive.
Thus, the project has strong growth potential and is likely to find applications across virtually all commercial orchards in Russia. The robot addresses seasonal labor shortages while also improving harvest quality.
Electromotive currently produces eight robots per month. The company has already signed supply contracts with orchard operators in Krasnodar Krai and Kabardino-Balkaria. The next step is increasing production capacity to 50 machines per month.
Electromotive manufactures its robots in Russia and has achieved a localization level of 75%. The company developed the most important components in-house, including artificial intelligence, stereoscopic vision technology capable of determining an object's shape, size, and distance, as well as mechatronics systems. All of these technologies were designed with Russian operating conditions in mind.
Robots for Precision Agriculture
Agricultural robots offer an effective way to increase production volumes in Russian farming. Systems that combine mechatronics, computer vision, artificial intelligence, navigation technologies, and analytics platforms are becoming essential tools for precision agriculture and are gradually becoming a familiar presence in Russian fields and orchards.
In October 2024, a research and manufacturing company in Stavropol Krai developed an automated tomato-harvesting system. In 2025, the K. A. Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian University created Vavilov, a robot designed to diagnose plant health. In Krasnodar Krai, developers tested a platform for automated banana cultivation inside greenhouses.
Russian developers of robotics and automated systems have entered a promising segment of the agricultural industry where demand for new solutions is expected to continue growing. The expansion of the domestic agricultural technology market has become part of a broader state development strategy.
This new agricultural robot will further automate farming operations in Russia while competing with existing platforms, creating additional incentives for innovation across the sector. By reducing harvest losses, fruit producers can increase output and improve profitability. Over time, agricultural robots are expected to become part of expanding precision-farming ecosystems that are pushing Russian agriculture toward higher levels of efficiency and productivity.
