On 15 February, Kubota and Tevel have received the DLG Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022 award for the jointly developed Automated Fruit Picking application. The award was handed out by the German DLG –Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft, during an online session.
Kubota and Tevel have combined their expertise to address the major challenge of labor shortages in fruit harvesting by developing an Automated Fruit Picking System, offering a solution for any farm size through its unique and modular approach. The modular concept of wired fruit-picking drones and flexible logistics solutions allows various configurations for individual farm requirements and enables full compatibility with established harvesting methods.
President and Representative Director of Kubota Corporation Mr. Yuichi Kitao, Mr. Yasukazu Kamada, President of Kubota Holdings Europe B.V. and Mr. Peter van der Vlugt, Managing Director of Kubota’s Innovation Center in Europe attended the Online Award Ceremony.
During the Award ceremony Mr. Kitao proudly stated: ’“Our vision for 2030 is to be an “Essentials Innovator for Supporting Life”. This DLG Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022 award is an encouragement to continue our investments in sustainable innovations in the fields of food, water, and the environment, looking ahead to the post-Covid-19 society.”
DLG, the German Agricultural Society (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft) has presented the ‘DLG Agrifuture Concept’ awards for pioneering agricultural machinery work and future visions. Visionary agricultural machinery solutions provide crucial stimuli for the future viability of global crop production. Engineers across the globe are working on technical solutions for the future of agriculture. Not all of their ideas and concepts make it to the finished product stage. Often, technical or legal constraints limit their development to market maturity. Many of these concepts nevertheless have the potential to provide inspiration and to stimulate farmers and engineering colleagues to think in new ways. This award underscores the relevance of this pioneering agricultural machinery work to the future of agriculture in five to ten years.
“We are particularly proud of our collaboration with Tevel. We partnered with one of the most advanced technology companies in fruit picking. Kubota is committed to help solve fruit growers’ problems in providing security for harvesting timing and quality and to deal with the increasing labour issues that growers are facing nowadays,” says Peter van der Vlugt, General Manager of Kubota’s Innovation Centre in Europe.
More about Tevel Flying Autonomous Robot (FARTM)
Tevel Aerobotics Technologies is a global leading expert in autonomous flying robots for fruit picking combining AI with computer vision, advanced robotics, aeronautical engineering, state-of-the-art flight control, data fusion and perception. Tevel develops a fleet of flying robots for performing picking, thinning and pruning tasks in orchards. Furthermore, Tevel’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) software will enable revolutionary fruit sorting at the source, by picking the best fruit in the orchard, at the optimal and precise timing.
Kubota Smart Agriculture
Kubota has proven its extensive expertise in advanced tractor and implement technologies. Latest examples of Kubota’s leading role are the implementation and certification of Tractor Implement Management (TIM) and the commercial launch of the autonomous tractor, transplanter and harvester in Japan. This expertise will now be utilized in the collaboration with Tevel to bring the best solution to orchard farmers worldwide.
About Kubota
Kubota has been a leading manufacturer of agricultural, turf and construction equipment and Industrial Engines since 1890. With world Headquarters in Osaka Japan, and offices in more than 120 countries, and with over 41,000 employees throughout North America, Europe and Asia, Kubota achieved revenues in 2020 of $17.3 billion. Although agricultural equipment is Kubota’s primary line of products, Kubota also produces a diverse portfolio of other products including city wide water filtration systems, irrigation, piping, roofing, housing and large underground valves.
Our Brand Statement
Our Brand Statement, “For Earth, For Life,” speaks of our commitment to the preservation of the Earth’s natural environment while aiding the production of food and water supplies that are vital to societal needs as our world population continues to grow. That mission is realized each time a Kubota tractor harvests the land to produce life-sustaining food or our construction equipment excavates to transport water resources or provide shelter. For more information on Kubota, please visit www.kubota-global.net or www.kubota-eu.com.
About Tevel Aerobotics Technologies
Our Tevel Aerobotics Technologies, based out of Gedera, Israel, provides robotic fruit harvesting on demand services – anytime, anywhere, and at any capacity. Tevel develops flying autonomous robots equipped with AI, which have already been proven in the fields of picking apples, peaches, nectarines, and plums, with more fruits planned, such as citrus and avocado. In its vision to lead the revolution in autonomous farming, the company plans to address additional labour-shortage challenges faced by the industry, such as fruit thinning, selective pruning and selective spraying. Tevel, with its current team of 35, has raised over $28 million to date. For more information, please visit www.tevel-tech.com.
