https://j.people.com.cn/n3/2025/0710/c95952-20338509.html

In the winter date house at Lvfengyuan Family Farm in Dali County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province, researchers are operating a winter date harvesting robot. When the robot uses AI recognition technology to find ripe winter dates, the arm accurately grabs the fruit and quickly harvests it. The series of movements is very smooth and looks skilled. China News reported.

The robot is China’s first smart winter date harvesting robot, “Lanxia,” jointly developed by Shenzhen Lanxia Robotics Co., Ltd. and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). The field test was conducted in Dali to help transform Dali’s winter dates into a higher quality and more modern direction.

Lanxia uses multi-wavelength imaging technology and an autonomously trained AI vision model, and has the ability to identify fruits hidden among leaves and branches even in complex backgrounds. The biomimetic flexible multi-finger gripper responds according to the shape and size of the fruit, and combines a multi-degree of freedom cooperative robot arm with a self-developed hand-eye coordination algorithm to flexibly and accurately approach the fruit.

The test results showed that the harvesting interval was about 8 seconds, the success rate of ripe fruit catching was about 85%, and the damage rate of the fruit was less than 8%.

The researchers are currently improving the second-generation prototype, with the aim of improving its environmental adaptability over the next two to three months. Development of the third generation will also begin soon, with completion planned within the next six to eight months. At the current stage, the work is done with a single arm, but in the future, the robot will be upgraded to one with multiple arms and cameras, with the aim of significantly improving harvesting efficiency.