GV (formerly Google Ventures) is leading a $10 million investment in Abundant Robotics, a company building apple-picking robots that could eventually be adapted to harvest other fruits. Joining GV in the round were BayWa AG and Tellus Partners, along with the company’s earlier backers Yamaha Motor Company, KPCB Edge and Comet Labs.
Abundant Robotics chief executive and co-founder Dan Steere said his company began working with the apple industry four years ago to figure out how to automate the cumbersome task of picking apples. “It’s very difficult to locate fruit that’s ready to be picked within a canopy and then retrieve it without turning it into apple sauce,” he said.
Every fall in the U.S. and in Australia, the company’s engineers can be found in different orchards testing their technologies and working alongside farmers to understand what’s still needed. The company’s robots are designed to work around-the-clock, identifying and picking apples even in the dark of night.
On the hardware side, as TechCrunch…