The Canadian government has approved funds for projects Under the Enhancing Automation in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Farming Challenge. They include:

-  Exonetik Inc. – Developing a robotic arm to work alongside humans to harvest fruits and vegetables

-  Kinova Inc. – Developing a robotic arm to pick, harvest and de-leaf cucumbers and strawberries

"At Exonetik, our team is developing solutions that will enable our partners, Savoura and Frontmatec, to automate tasksthat until now could only be performed by humans,” said Pascal Larose, CEO and co-founder of Exonetik, Sherbrooke, QC.  “With the support of Innovative Solutions Canada, we will complete the development of the first marketableversion of teleoperable haptic robot arms, capable of learning from human operators and automatically reproducing thesame operations, with a sensitivity and adaptability unattainable by industrial or collaborative robots. Our mission is tomake the impossible possible, and we believe that robotics can solve the labour shortage problems facing companies inthe agri-food sector."

"Kinova is delighted to have been selected to continue advancing robotics and automation in agriculture,” said Jonathan Lussier, director of industrial business development, Kinova, headquartered in Boisbriand, QC, an off-island suburb of Montreal. “With the first phase completed and the results positive, we are confident of the benefits for the second phase.We would like to thank Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Innovative Solutions Canada for their confidence.”

Source:  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada April 5, 2024 news release