Metomotion’s Robotic Tomato Harvester
Metomotion's automated tomato harvester.
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Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position. Adi Nir: I’m originally from Kibbutz Sarid in Israel—I’m from the third generation of my family in the kibbutz. I’ve
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been working in agriculture since a young age. Later on, I studied engineering at the Technion in Israel and spent almost 17 years in the aerospace industry as a research and development engineer and in project management positions. Then, together with my brother, who is a robotics engineer, I decided that I would love to use my kibbutz background and my aerospace industry experience to solve issues in agriculture. Farmers face a lot of urgent issues, including desertification and labor shortage, and we would like to help find solutions through technology. Irrigation Leader: Is the kibbutz you are from still a primarily agricultural community? Adi Nir: Yes, it is mainly focused on agriculture but also includes industry. My personal experience was with different agricultural production methods, including open crops and orchards.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF METOMOTION.
etomotion is an Israeli company that has brought together robotics, mechanical design, and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an autonomous robotic platform that can automatically harvest tomatoes grown in greenhouses, saving significantly on operational and labor costs. Having attracted funding from governmental and corporate sources in Israel and Europe, it plans to begin selling its products as early as this year. In this interview, Metomotion CEO Adi Nir talks to Irrigation Leader about greenhouse agriculture and how Metomotion’s robotic platform stands to benefit greenhouse growers around the world.
