The highly intelligent, robotic solution to the post-harvest industry

About

Wootzano is a British state-of-the-art robotics company based in Sedgefield, in the northeast of England. Our highly dexterous robotic system, Avarai, is crafted to meet the needs of the post-harvest industry by supplementing a struggling workforce in the packing of delicate, soft produce, such as grapes and vine tomatoes. Each feature of the system is designed with the customer in mind to provide an immediate solution, without compromising on current industry standards.

Key Benefits

We have worked with our customers to develop the first commercially available solution for labour in the post-harvest industry. Our highly dexterous, robotic system has packed for high-end retailers with no discernible difference in quality between those packed by our robots and those packed by humans, maintaining the same high quality standards required for the British food industry. The award-winning electronic skin enables our robots to feel as humans do, a feature that puts our robot above all other systems on the market. This e-skin enables our robots to detect the precise force needed to pick up soft produce without compromising the fruit's internal or external structure. This crucial feature allows for high-value produce such as grapes and vine tomatoes to be picked and packed delicately with ease. Our objective is to democratise robots, thus we priced our system such that it is inexpensive for any packhouse. Each robot costs the same per hour as a human worker, providing our customers with an immediate ROI. Human parity avoids any expensive upfront charges, time-delayed planning, and risky commitments to solutions that do not solve issues, putting our customers needs first. The Avarai system can be installed in as little as one day and be operational by the next, offering an immediate solution to the labour shortage and avoiding time spent on sourcing more labourers. The sleek and modular design was created with the intention of minimising downtime when upgrading a factory line, as our robot occupies the same space as a human worker. This gives our customers peace of mind that they can still meet all their targets and upgrade their facilities. By incorporating Avarai, we can cut the number of human labour requirements by 60%, resulting in a total cost reduction of 30% per line. This approach gives packers the option of expanding output capacity by 25% or saving money. Our feedback from packing line workers was that they felt more engaged with their work as repetitive tasks were replaced by robots. Additionally, the training of the new system only took minutes and resulted in a 40% rise in productivity. We have not only built a solution for an industry that has been in need for decades, but we did it at no cost to the customer in terms of time or money. Avarai, offers savings and the possibility to expand without sacrificing because we believe that robots should be affordable and available to anyone.

Applications

-Fresh produce packing in the post harvest industry -Specialising in complex fruit such as vine tomatoes and grapes.

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