A lettuce-picking robot takes another step into the field

Picking a lettuce sounds simple until you ask a robot to do it. Every head is different, and a badly placed cut or an overenthusiastic grip can ruin it.

Canadian company Sami Robotics has demonstrated a robot cutting and picking iceberg lettuce at Reservoir Farms in Salinas, California, according to Not Boring. Its platform uses computer vision and robotic arms to select vegetables ready for harvesting.

The company says its machines harvested broccoli commercially in Québec in 2025. Extending the same approach to lettuce could help growers facing labour shortages and make repeated, selective harvests more practical. Picking crops when they’re ready could also reduce waste.

This isn’t humanity’s first robotic iceberg harvest: Cambridge researchers reported successful field tests in 2019. Their prototype also showed how difficult it was to match human speed and efficiency.

Sami still lists iceberg harvesting as in development. The milestone is a working demonstration; the bigger test is whether the machine can repeatedly deliver undamaged lettuces at a speed and cost that work for growers.