Marc Hanheide represents Lincoln at Fruit Focus 2021

AgriFoRwArdS CDT Director, Prof Marc Hanheide, attended the Fruit Focus 2021 event held at NIAB EMR in July.

Fruit focus is a technical event for the UK fruit industry, providing opportunity to give and get updates on the latest technologies available in the sector, as well as a fantastic networking opportunity.

Marc, alongside others from the University of Lincoln, attended the event in July to showcase the amazing research currently ongoing at the University. Including a demonstration of autonomous robots for in-field logistics in partnership with AgriFoRwArdS CDT Industry Partners, Berry Gardens Growers.

Marc also sat on Fruit Focus Panel ‘Robotics & Automation Super Session’ alongside Dan Sargent, Head of Plant Sciences at Saga Robotics, and Robert Pearson, CEO of Autonomous Spray Systems.

The session brought together these leading technologies to discuss the future of robotics and automation in the fruit industry, and consisted of three sections;

  1. A Cleaner, Greener More Profitable Future – Autonomous Farming Today
  2. Fleets of Autonomous Robotics in Strawberry Production
  3. Applications of the Thorvald Robotic Platform to Tasks in Strawberry Cultivation

AgriFoRwArdS CDT works closely with Saga Robotics, and its Thorvald platform, and so this panel was of particular interest.

There was lots of opportunity to network with other AgriFoRwArdS CDT Industry Partners too, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and Berry Gardens Growers.