Plymouth firm behind world's first raspberry picking robot raises £298,000

Frontier IP, of which Fieldwork is a portfolio company, said that the funding would be used to accelerate and scale up development of an autonomous robot system designed to pick soft fruit and vegetables. It said that it converted a £48,000 loan into equity, while £250,000 was provided by new investors which Frontier chief executive Neil Crabb said were “a range of experienced investors with backgrounds across the finance and agriculture sectors". Fieldwork’s raspberry-picking robot is the brainchild of former aerospace engineer Dr Martin Stoelen. The development of fruit-picking robots is aimed at addressing the increasing shortage of seasonal migrant labour often used to pick fruit at harvest times. Growers across Britain need 70,000 workers at peak times to collect fruit and vegetables and the National Farmers Union (NFU) reported that 56pc of growers said they did not have the workforce they needed in 2018.