Robotic Mushroom Picker

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Field crops tend to hog the spotlight when it comes to technological innovation in agriculture, but other areas of food production are innovating as well. Mushroom producers may soon have an answer for their high labor costs thanks to an invention from TechBrew Robotics. CEO Mike Boudreau says they’ve created a robotic mushroom picker.

Boudreau… “The mushrooms grow in what's called flushes. So two weeks after the compost is pulled into the rack, the little mushrooms or pins start coming up. And then when they get to the size, usually about 20 millimeters or bigger in diameter, you start harvesting them. And so you have five days harvesting and then there's a two day inter flush period where not much is happening, then another five day period of harvesting. So basically the robot's in the room for two weeks, and then you move the robot from that room to the next room that's ready to start harvesting. There's a two week lag between, you know, when the compost goes in and when you start harvesting. So we're always hopping from room to room, but we're moving the robot once every two weeks. So it's not a big deal. It's a, you know, 15 minute exercise to move the robot.”

Demand for mushrooms continue to increase and producers say labor is their biggest challenge.