ABB Robots and the Push to Automate Orchards

Apples are still picked by hand. Cornell's new $7.5M orchard robotics center aims to change that; ABB's IRB 1300 IP67, IRB 4600 and GoFa show where arms fit

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/24/20261 min read

A century ago, apple harvest in Washington's Yakima Valley meant long days up a wooden ladder. Each apple was twisted off by hand so the stem stayed on and the skin didn't bruise, and the same crews came back in spring to thin the fruit.

Black and white photo of three men picking apples from ladders in an orchard
Black and white photo of three men picking apples from ladders in an orchard

Pickers on ladders in a Yakima Valley apple orchard, around 1915. Photo: Webster and Stevens / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The picking itself hasn't changed much. Growers moved to narrow, wall-like trees and slow platforms that carry pickers down the row, but people still pick every apple. Most other US crops are harvested by machine; apples, which bruise easily, never made the switch.

Workers picking apples next to a red harvest machine under hail nets in an orchard
Workers picking apples next to a red harvest machine under hail nets in an orchard

Pickers working beside a harvest platform in a South Tyrol apple orchard. Photo: Marsupium / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

This month Cornell said it will lead a new Center of Excellence for Orchard Robotics, funded by a four-year, $7.5 million USDA grant. Nine organizations, including Washington State University, Carnegie Mellon and Israel's Fresh Fruit Robotics, will work on robots that pollinate, thin, weed and harvest.

Black and green wheeled agricultural robot with a camera arm on a trade show stand
Black and green wheeled agricultural robot with a camera arm on a trade show stand

An autonomous farm robot on show at Agritechnica 2023 in Hanover. Photo: MB-one / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

One grower in the project said labor has gone from about 45% to over 60% of its costs in fifteen years. ABB doesn't make orchard robots, but its arms already work around the harvest. The IRB 1300 comes in an IP67 version that tolerates water and dust, a basic need anywhere near a farm.

White ABB IRB 1300 robot arm labelled Foundry Plus 2 working inside a cell
White ABB IRB 1300 robot arm labelled Foundry Plus 2 working inside a cell

An ABB IRB 1300 in its Foundry Plus 2 version, rated IP67 against water and dust. Photo: ABB

In packhouses and packaging plants, ABB robots do the lifting. At Orora Fresh Packaging in Kingsville, Canada, two IRB 4600 robots stack the cardboard trays that carry fresh produce, so fewer workers handle heavy repetitive loads.

Close-up of a grey ABB IRB 4600 robot in a packaging plant
Close-up of a grey ABB IRB 4600 robot in a packaging plant

An ABB IRB 4600 in the Orora Fresh Packaging cell that stacks produce trays in Kingsville, Canada. Photo: ABB

Cornell also plans digital twins of real orchards, the same idea ABB uses in RobotStudio to test robot programs before they run. I'd expect harvest robots to show up in big orchards first. A cobot like ABB's GoFa, which senses contact in its joints, hints at how a small arm could one day help pick a backyard tree.

ABB GoFa cobot arm on a wooden table in a bright room
ABB GoFa cobot arm on a wooden table in a bright room

ABB's GoFa cobot, which senses contact through its joints. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com

Instagram