Nanovel unveils AI-powered fruit harvesting robot, secures USD 900,000 in funding

The Nanovel AI-powered autonomous fruit-harvesting robot is the world’s first-of-its-kind system designed to pick citrus fruit for fresh markets from large trees with dense foliage, representing a breakthrough in fruit-harvesting technology.

Nanovel, an Israeli AgTech startup, has unveiled an AI-powered autonomous fruit-harvesting robot capable of picking tree fruit for the fresh market. The robot offers a solution to growers worldwide dealing with farm labor shortage and rapidly increasing costs. According to a survey conducted by Western Growers organisation, profitability and labour availability were ranked as the top two challenges faced by specialty crop growers.

Nanovel was established in 2018 by the company’s CEO Isaac Mazor, a successful serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in technology innovation, AI, computer vision, and robotics. Mazor was the Founder and CEO of Jordan Valley Semiconductors, which was acquired by Bruker International in 2015 (Nasdaq : BRKR).

The Nanovel AI-powered autonomous fruit-harvesting robot is the world’s first-of-its-kind system designed to pick citrus fruit for fresh market in dense foliage, representing a high level of technological complexity. The system features a multi-arm platform, which will initially be towed by a tractor. Future versions are planned to include an internal driving unit and autonomous navigation capabilities. The robot’s telescopic arms are equipped with edge computing, advanced vision systems, and AI to identify, assess, and selectively pick fruit with precision that meets fresh market quality standards. In the first phase, the robot is planned to harvest oranges, with later expansion to other types of citrus, the most widely cultivated fruit globally. The company’s crop roadmap includes lemons, grapefruits, avocados, mangoes, peaches, and nectarines.

Each arm of the robot uses a patented end-effector with a vacuum gripper to cradle the fruit and then trim the stems using cutters without damaging the fruit. The fruit is then transported via conveyor belts to bins. The robot uses advanced edge computing to deliver real-time, AI-driven data necessary for fruit picking. This is a key component of Nanovel’s technology, allowing the robot to pick fruit in dense foliage. Nanovel robots will prove invaluable to growers in the United States, where orange harvesting occurs year-round, allowing for high capital utilisation.

With this in mind, the California Citrus Research Board (CRB) has signed a non-dilutive funding agreement with Nanovel, which includes the delivery of a robot after a series of field trials in California, totaling USD 900,000. The field trials are set to start in the spring of 2025, and will be conducted in cooperation with leading citrus growers

A key benefit of the Nanovel AI-powered autonomous fruit-harvesting robot is its ability to significantly reduce labor costs and minimize the logistical challenges associated with hiring seasonal workers. Studies show that manual harvesting is the single most labour-intensive task for fruit farmers, accounting for up to 50 % of annual cultural costs in the citrus industry in developed countries. Additionally, the system can operate day and night, optimising productivity and ensuring crops are picked at optimal times, potentially improving fruit quality and market value.

Furthermore, automating the harvesting process helps avoid the dangerous task of laborers picking fruit while on ladders. This alone supports a huge improvement in worker safety and reduces the risk of accidents and injuries. Additionally, the real-time collection of harvest data by the system, delivers invaluable insights that can be used for packing and marketing activities and can also provide important agronomic insights to growers.

“Our mission is to secure the affordability of fresh fruit through autonomous harvesting,” said Isaac Mazor, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nanovel. “Our goal is to deploy Nanovel’s solution into major global citrus markets, particularly in the US and Southern European countries like Spain and Italy. We aim to set a new standard for fresh market harvesting, ensuring high quality and economic viability for growers.”

The harvesting of early oranges is expected to advance in May, which may raise supply and press down quotations. In general, availability has been growing since mid-April, weakening prices.

In April (until April 28th), the average price for pear oranges closed at BRL 42.10 per 40.8-kilo box (on tree), a slight 4.96 % down from that in March (BRL 43.00/box). Before that, values had increased for two months.

On the other hand, for early oranges, quotations were firm in April – the average price for rubi oranges closed at BRL 35.71/box, 3.63 % higher than that in March. As the values for this group of oranges have been lower than that for pear oranges, the competitiveness of early oranges has increased.

For the coming weeks, if prices drop, sales tend to increase, since demand may be higher. However, if values decrease too steeply, farmers may reduce the harvesting, since the oranges on tree have not reached the ideal maturation stage yet. Thus, citrus farmers may prefer to wait for the beginning of activities at processing plants. The industry’s purchase proposals for the oranges from the 2022/23 season have been up to BRL 32.00/box (harvested and delivered).

Although two plants of the large-sized processors were processing oranges in late April, activities were slow because of low supply. By the end of last month, only one plant was purchasing early oranges (as long as ratio is near or higher than 14).

The processing of the oranges from the 2021/22 season has been high in the major processors in São Paulo State. Although activities usually slow down in January, the orange harvesting is late in the current season – because of the higher share of fruits from the second, third and fourth flowerings.

In January, seven plants of the large-sized processors in SP were in operation, receiving majorly late varieties and early pear oranges. However, activities slowed down last month compared to that in December, due to the end of processing at the plant located in Uchôa. In February, the plant in Conchal is supposed to end activities for the season too – then, there will be only two plants of each one of the large-sized processors in operation.

Despite the fast processing pace, the quality of the oranges is below the expected. Industrial yield (number of orange boxes necessary to produce a ton of concentrated juice), which had been favoured by the lack of rains along the season, is now being reduced by excessive and frequent precipitation – higher moisture favours fruits growth, but raises the volume of water within the oranges, which is not desired by processors.

PRICES – Two large-sized processors purchased oranges in the Brazilian spot market in January, paying from BRL 28 to BRL 30.00 per 40.8-kilo box, harvested and delivered to processor. At smaller-sized processors, prices hit BRL 32/box. Some plants were also processing tahiti lime, paying from BRL 18 to BRL 21.00 per 27-kilo box.