Milton Keynes company develops world’s first cabbage-picking robots to help farmers all over the world

The RV3 has been developed by RoboVeg in Kiln Farm and is a world first.

The automated harvester used three robots to pick brassica crops. It’s capable of harvesting a massive 3,600 crops per hour.

This week the first machine is about to leave the RoboVeg factory in Potters Lane to be sent to ESG, a major farmer-owned cooperative in Scotland that specialises in brassica crops.

The RV3 has a vision system that scans the field as the machine moves forward, locating the brassica heads and accurately sending coordinates to the robots.

A harvesting cutting hand allows precise length cutting of the brassica stems and the robots drop the brassica heads in boxes located at the end of the harvester, An artificial illumination integrated in the vision system allows day or night harvesting, improving productivity rate for farmers.

The machine has the potential to significantly reduce manual labour as it is designed to be operated by one person and can run for up to 24 hours per day

Already farmers from all around the world are contacting RoboVeg about the machine, said a company spokesman.

He has thanked Milton Keynes Council, who supported the company with grant funding to help it survive over the Covid pandemic period.

Established in 2019, RoboVeg is believed to be the most advanced selective, automated brassica harvesting solution in the world, with potential to cover a wide range of vegetable harvesting.