Will This Robotics Company Succeed Where Others Have Failed?

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Many robotics companies have come and gone from the agriculture industry. They usually start with high ambitions of helping farmers with labor problems by offering effective automation, but all too often they run out of money before reaching commercial viability. So I asked Alex Gutierrez of L5 Automation why he thinks their robotic strawberry picker can succeed where others have failed.

Gutierrez… “And it really comes down to the time that growers need a solution most is during what's called peak production. That's where they make most of their money. That's where most of the strawberries are grown. But it's also when there's a ton of leaves and foliage over the plants, and quite frankly, no one has really solved that problem. No one has been, before, at least in my opinion us, have had a realistic approach that could really solve the peak production problem. And what we do uniquely that's different is we kind of model things just like a human would, where we have two arms that are working through where one arm moves aside the leaves, so the second arm could come down and grab the strawberries. You cannot grab what you can't see. And so this is where other robotics companies have struggled, but we believe we have a unique angle and approach to actually solve this follow up so that farmers could take advantage of , labor savings down the line.”

L5 Automation already has units operating in the field and they are currently taking on investors via the WeFunder platform. Their campaign is expected to be closing soon.