FRUCTHOR IA – Autonomous Robotics Solutions to Enhance the Competitiveness of the Fruit and Vegetable Sector

Project description:

FRUCTHOR-IA is a project focused on strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of the fruit and vegetable sector in the Sudoe area (south-western Europe), which plays a key role in rural areas through job creation and economic development. In response to challenges such as globalisation, the lack of generational renewal and low profitability, the project proposes autonomous robotics solutions for crop monitoring and human-robot collaborative work.

Main objective:

To optimise the competitiveness of the fruit and vegetable sector in the Sudoe area through the development of autonomous robotics solutions that enable efficient, effective and safe collaboration between people and robotic systems.

These solutions aim to improve the productivity and sustainability of the sector while helping to address the region’s demographic challenges, such as rural depopulation and population ageing, strengthening social and territorial cohesion and creating new employment opportunities in rural areas.

Specific project objectives:

The specific objectives of the project cover the different technologies to be investigated:

SO1: Analyse the specific automation needs of the fruit and vegetable sector in the Sudoe area and design innovative solutions based on autonomous robotics for crop monitoring and human-robot collaborative work.
SO2: Test and optimise innovative autonomous robotics solutions for crop monitoring and to promote effective collaboration between humans and robots for the efficient harvesting of fruit.
SO3: Develop and implement joint strategies and action plans to expand the scope of autonomous robotics solutions aimed at improving the efficiency of monitoring and selective fruit harvesting in the Sudoe area.