Economic viability of robotic fruit harvesters to reduce large seasonal labor demands: Analysis of Gala and Honeycrisp apples

Fruit harvesting is labor intensive and relies heavily on a decreasing immigrant farm labor supply. This study develops a model to compare robotic and manual apple-harvesting profits. Given the anticipated performance of robotic prototypes, we find that a grower could spend $248.42 per acre per year on a robotic harvester and obtain the same profit as manual harvest. Marginal improvements in the percent of fruit harvested, harvester speed, and robot-induced damage would greatly enhance robot profitability and farmers could spend more on the harvester and still obtain the same profit as manual harvest.