work alongside the human workers in wholesale shrub farms, which can have as many as 3 million containers of ornamental plants in 500 acres. The robots lift and move the plants to perform tasks that traditionally cause the greatest number of injuries among manual laborers. The current human workers will essentially serve as supervisors to Harvest’s robots.
“Humans still give direction at a high level, but the machines are doing the heavy lifting,” says VP of sales and marketing Wade Appelman.
The company’s iRobot pedigree is evident in how its technology is designed to interact with surroundings. Many robots require tightly controlled settings to function properly, but Harvest’s units are developed to perform successfully in an unstructured environment, according to Grinnell and Appelman. “Like a Roomba, it goes into a room and is up and running in a minute,” says Appelman.
The human workers instruct the machines on their next moves with a software interface, but the programming process is designed to be no more complex than that in which consumers pump fuel at gas stations. “We’re designing this piece of equipment to be used by the same workers who are already out there,” Grinnell says.
Harvest declined to disclose any pricing details for its products, but Appelman said the return has been “very well-received by our customers.” Harvest is currently working to develop and test the product with 16 customers across the country, mostly in states with large commercial agriculture industries, such as Florida and California.
