• Title: Project Insight - Fruit Scouting Robot Validation and Integration
  into Supply-Chain
• Funders: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and UKRI Transforming Food Production Challenge
• Funding Programme: Farming Innovation Pathways (FIP) - industrial research
• Duration of the Project: 24 months
• Project costs: £ 730,760
• Start Date: 1st January 2022

Partnership

The project is a partnership between several UK organisations:

1. Antobot Ltd (lead organisation) - an award-winning agri-robotics start-up that develops integrated automotive-grade universal Robot Control Units (uRCU) - the "brain" for intelligent agricultural robots; and mobile robot platforms and specific agri-robotics solutions based on the uRCU.
2. Agri-EPI Centre Ltd - is an innovation centre supporting development and adoption of agri-tech.
3. Place-UK - a British food manufacturer and the UK's largest individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit supplier operating in Norfolk.
4. University of Bedfordshire - the largest Business School in its region, providing industry-led business-oriented courses underpinned by research excellence.
5. University of Essex - the Business School with world-class research.

Aim and objectives

The aim of the project is to digitise the earliest stage of the fruit value-chain. Antobot Ltd has developed a fully autonomous fruit scouting agri-robot, Insight, that can travel autonomously through the farm. Using artificial intelligence gathers accurate, timely and rich data for deeper insight on crop yield and profile.

The key objectives are:

• Deployment of Insight robots directly with growers as target-customers and direct partners
• Test, refinement and validation of Antobot's fruit sizing, counting and ripeness algorithm software
• Validation of business-models and integration of the data into the supply-chain to increase transparency and reduce food-waste

Outcomes

• The target customers are UK soft and topfruit growers. The value proposition will enable optimisation of packing, storage capacity and labour resources; effective customer negotiation, avoiding waste, shortfall and maximising value opportunity.
• The initial business model strategy (a scouting as-a-service model) will benefit customers and
  include low capital cost and per-hectare pricing increasing technology accessibility and removing barriers to initial uptake. This enables a larger, more inclusive market.
• The initial route-to-market strategy will build a community of early-adopters with partner growers becoming customers post-project. New growers will be engaged through the knowledge exchange programme.
• Events and demonstrations will be held throughout the project duration.
• Project outcomes will also be shared through PR and social media channels, ensuring maximum reach across industry including farmers, technology companies and the onward agri-food value chain.

Expected impact

• The project will create a commercial-ready product for adoption into the market, comprising the platform, its algorithms and supporting evaluations.
• Insight will reduce scouting-labour requirement and provide more accurate, timely and richer data giving deeper insight into crop yield and profile to meet the grower's needs.
• Supply-chain evaluation will provide evidence for new business-models and processes for integrating the product and data into the chain resulting in lower food waste and higher productivity.
• Growers will benefit through annual crop yield uplift arising from Insight data utilisation, including earlier detection of pest and diseases and improved management.
• The unique integrated hardware and platform efficiency will allow Insight to operate mostly with solar power reducing external energy needs and charging downtime.

Contact Information

Professor Yanqing Duan
E: yanqing.duan@beds.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1582 743134