An Israeli company that has created an autonomous pollinating robot has started its first trials in Australia.

According to ABC Rural, Arugga AI Farming is hoping its technology can transform Australia's greenhouse farming sector, especially greenhouse tomatoes, which are currently pollinated by hand.

Chief executive Iddo Geltner said after successful trials in Israel, the company had targeted Australia because it did not have bumblebees.

"Around the world, pollination in greenhouses is typically performed using commercially produced bumblebee hives, but these bees don't pollinate well in certain conditions, and they're actually banned in Australia," he told ABC Rural.

"It autonomously drives along the rows, finds flowers that are ready for pollination using artificial intelligence, and sends air pulses to vibrate the flowers in a very specific manner to imitate buzz pollination as performed by bumblebees."

Looking at opportunities to improve yields

Arugga's pollinating robot is being tested at Costa Group's multi-million-dollar greenhouse facility in Guyra in the NSW Northern Tablelands.

Mr Geltner said the company would focus initially on pollinating tomatoes but was also looking at opportunities to improve yields for other greenhouse crops.

"The greenhouse sector is huge and growing around the world at a steady pace of more than 5 per cent a year," he said.

"As far as we know, greenhouse farming is the fastest growing [agricultural] sector in Australia, so we've started with Costa in Guyra, but later on will look to work with other growers."

According to Jonathan Eccles from Protected Cropping Australia, the greenhouse tomato industry is worth about $900 million a year in Australia and continues to grow.

Any innovation to improve pollination would be welcomed by the industry, he says. 

Source: ABC Rural News