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

Abstract 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.