Victoria-based startup company Ripe Robotics is spiking the industry’s interest with its newly launched fruit-picking robot, Eve.

The firm, led by CEO Hunter Jay, recently wrapped up apple harvest in Goulburn Valley, ABC News reports, where the robot successfully - and autonomously - picked the fruit in Ardmona apple orchards.

Eve is designed to pick apples, plums, peaches, and nectarines that are grown on either 2D planar or V-trellis.

The prototype uses cameras on its arms to identify and harvest the apples. It even measures color and size to determine ripeness using AI.

"Then the arm will reach in with a soft suction cup, use air to suck the fruit in and twist it off a tree and then place it on the conveyor belt," Jay told the news site.

The engineering team used thousands of pictures of different apple varieties to “teach” Eve to recognize the fruit.

The firm doesn’t sell or lease the machines. Instead, they charge by-the-bin and for the fruit picked, just like a human fruit picker.

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Ripe Robotics’ efforts are far from random, as Victoria currently shows the highest percentage of farms experiencing recruitment difficulty, at 70%, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARES).

The entity’s Horticulture survey results in 2022 also show that about 57% of Australian horticulture farms faced labor shortages and had difficulty recruiting staff during 2021-22.

"From the grower perspective, picking is getting more and more expensive and is a massive problem,” Jay added.

Ripe Robotics’ Eve is becoming increasingly popular, with its creators receiving dozens of calls and requests for live demonstrations in the U.S., Europe and all over the world.

Featured picture by Ripe Robotics.