According to Nikkei Technology, the robot is designed to pick up to 10 tomatoes per minute, rivaling the speed of most human workers. The robot accomplishes this feat by using a 3D camera rig and artificial intelligence to map out the locations of tomatoes growing on a vine, determine which tomatoes are ripe enough to pick based on their shape and color, and execute complex movements to pick and capture each one.

According to Nikkei, Panasonic has been interested in a tomato-picking robot for some time, but has only now been able to build one rivaling human workers thanks to AI and faster movement speeds. The company envisions the robot attached to a rail system, picking an entire farm’s worth of tomatoes without any human involvement at all.

It’s still an open question how long it will be before a farm actually installs a robot like this, and it’s not clear that Panasonic is ready to release its creation into the world. But it’s likely that robot tomato pickers will become a reality sooner rather than later, and once that happens there will be nothing standing between the robots and world domination.

Source: Nikkei Technology via PCMag