Fruit

Canadian researchers have embarked on a mission to produce year-round berry crops pretty much anywhere. The Agrotunnel vertical farm provides optimum growing conditions monitored by AI, and meets electricity needs with proprietary solar panels.

According to Israeli startup Tevel Aerobotics, there is a severe shortage of workers available to pick fruit at orchards. That's why the company is developing an alternative, in the form of autonomous flying drones that do the job.

Whether you buy your veggies from a farmer's market or at the grocery store, you need to give them a good wash when you get home. But how clean is clean enough? Help is at hand from an unexpected source in the shape of the PureGo PD100 from Asus.

The latest test run for TuSimple's self-driving trucks involved hauling a load of fresh produce over hundreds of miles across the US, where it demonstrated that it can complete such tasks in quick and highly efficient fashion.

Australian researchers have cooked up a creative partial solution to the problem of labor shortages in the fruit-picking sector, developing a robot that can harvest apples from orchards at high speed.

According to Germany's University of Hohenheim, about 80 percent of the fruit trees in that country aren't pruned – despite the fact that doing so makes them more resistant to disease. That's why the university is creating a robot to do the job.

Every year, millions of eggs are rejected for sale in supermarkets, while millions of fruits and vegetables spoil before being eaten. Scientists are now addressing both problems, utilizing rejected eggs to create a coating that keeps produce fresh.

Fieldwork Robotics – a spinout company from the University of Plymouth in the UK – has announced the successful completion of early field trials of a raspberry-harvesting robot. If commercialized, the system could help make up for a shortage of human fruit pickers in the country.

We've already heard about experimental edible coatings made from silk, pectin and chitosan that increase the shelf life of fresh fruit and vegetables. Now, however, a coating made from waste plant material is being used on avocados sold in US supermarkets.

​When fruit is being transported from the field to the supermarket, it's vitally important that it remain refrigerated. With that in mind, scientists have developed temperature sensors that could ride along with fruit shipments, replicating the fruit's size, shape and structure.

For farmers in developing countries without refrigerators, a great deal of produce - and therefore profit - can be lost through spoilage. A new device seeks to tackle this problem by increasing the short-term storage time for fruit and veg. The Wakati stores produce in a sterilized microclimate.

A project by artist Sam Van Aken will delight lovers of fruit. The Tree of 40 Fruit is a project in which a single tree is modified to bear over 40 different types of stone fruit.