A robot picks strawberries in 20 seconds: how automation is reaching Chinese farms

While the industry's attention is fixed on humanoids on factory floors, a quieter robotics revolution is under way in Chinese agriculture. According to Xinhua, a team led by researcher Wang Xiaochan at Nanjing Agricultural University has developed a new-generation strawberry-picking robot that handles a single berry in an average of 20 seconds with an 84% grasping success rate — and the harvested berries remain in nearly the same condition as when picked by hand.

From a single arm to an entire fleet

A larger-scale example is Shanghai Sweet AI Technology, which has deployed a fleet of more than 60 robots at Diantian Farm in Tinglin Township. All the machines are controlled remotely via the WeChat app and perform a wide range of tasks — from ploughing to harvesting — demonstrating speed and precision that don't degrade with fatigue, unlike a human worker on a long shift.

A state goal, not just private initiative

These aren't isolated enthusiast experiments — China's government expects information-driven systems to lead more than 30% of agricultural production by 2026. The country's agricultural robot market is forecast to grow from $4.28 billion in 2025 to $13.1 billion by 2030 — a 25.2% CAGR, one of the highest growth rates among all robotics application segments.

Technology transferring in from other sectors

The integration of 5G, image-recognition technology, and big-data systems already proven in industrial and warehouse robotics is transferring directly into agriculture: the same computer-vision algorithms that spot defects on a factory conveyor are here learning to tell a ripe berry from an unripe one, while navigation systems developed for warehouse AMRs are being applied to autonomous movement across a field. Notably, Chinese agricultural robots can already do more than harvest — they control pests, diagnose plant disease, and monitor livestock health, covering the full cycle rather than a single operation.

A selection of Chinese robot manufacturers across industries is available in the Aura Robotics catalog.