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Tevel Technologies Aerobotics, an Israel-based agricultural technology company specialised in robotic harvesting solutions, is scouting for a local partner, mostly in green houses, vertical farming and greenfield farming to support the UAE’s food security mission, a top company official said.
“Part of our plan is to open activity here in the UAE for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market and also to find the right partner,” said Moshe Porat, Tevel Technologies Vice President Marketing and Managing Director for Middle East.
Tevel is also looking for collaboration with the public and private sectors in the region towards in-field greenhouses technology and innovation solutions for crop management and harvesting.
“We are also looking to collaborate with the public and private sector in order to ensure a faster application of this technology across the Middle East region,” he added.
The company has raised $20 million from global investors including Kubota, Forbon, and AgFunder, among others and is looking for further investments from the UAE market to upscale its solutions and make them available in the country and the Gulf region.
As a prelude to entering the UAE market, the company showcased its patented Flying Autonomous Robot (FAR) technology at the Food For Future Summit 2022 at Dubai Exhibition Centre.
FAR is a system of interconnected drones tethered to a ground unit that includes a computing base and a fruit elevator. The machine is powered by artificial intelligence that can pick fruit faster, with greater care, and at less expense than human labour.
“We specialise in innovative harvesting solutions combined with cutting-edge algorithms, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and data analytics, that have the potential to revolutionise the agriculture industry in the region,” said Porat.
Tevel’s AI-based perception algorithms helps analyse the state of the fruit; the vision algorithms help detect the fruit, foliage, and other objects which includes fruit classification such as size, ripeness, whereas the manoeuvre algorithms support optimal trajectory planning and execution.
The company plans to get into developing technologies for other crops, and methods of harvesting by integrating the FAR and connecting to machinery vendors who are interested in getting the AI and robotics technology into agritech machinery.
“Based on this technology, we also have additional adapters that can be put into the robot specially for cutting and harvesting fruits such as grapes, berries, citrus fruits, mangoes and cherry and later paddy, wheat and corn,” he said.
It is estimated that growers worldwide lose $30 billion in sales a year as fruits are not picked on time for want of labour.
(Reporting by Bhaskar Raj; Editing by Anoop Menon)
