AGRIST AI Harvesting Robots for Peppers and Cucumbers

AGRIST Inc. was founded on 24 October 2019 and is headquartered in Shintomi, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. The deep-tech agtech company develops low-cost, simple harvesting robots and AI for greenhouse fruit vegetables, aiming to automate more than 20% of harvest work as farm labour shrinks. Since 2019 it has built smart-agriculture demonstration sites with local governments, companies and JA cooperatives, including its own farm in Shintomi.

The robots travel along greenhouse rails, recognise fruit with an onboard camera and pick green peppers or cucumbers at about one fruit per minute under ideal conditions. Operators start harvesting with one button from a smartphone or PC and receive alerts when work ends or faults occur. While patrolling, the robots collect images and environmental data that AGRIST's AI, developed with Microsoft, turns into yield forecasts and cultivation support. The 2026 model adds automatic inter-row movement and about 12 hours of runtime.

• Rail-guided travel: moves along greenhouse pipe rails of 31.8 or 48.6 mm diameter at 1 to 10 cm per second.
• Camera fruit recognition: identifies ripe green peppers and cucumbers before picking.
• One-button harvest: starts from any position and is controlled from a smartphone or PC.
• Data patrol: collects environmental and image data for AI yield forecasting.
• 2026 model upgrades: automatic inter-row movement, 450 to 1,800 mm arm reach and about 12 hours of runtime.
• Smart greenhouse design: AGRIST also designs robot-ready greenhouses and farm packages.

High-tech greenhouse operators in Lam Dong can trial AGRIST robots for cucumber and bell pepper harvesting during labour peaks. Agricultural investors building new greenhouse clusters can adopt robot-ready layouts from the design stage. Cooperatives can share rented robots across members' greenhouses and use harvest data to plan sales.

Robots harvest for about 10 to 12 hours per charge, covering repetitive picking when seasonal workers are scarce. Image and environmental data gathered during harvest support yield forecasting and earlier detection of crop problems. AGRIST's English profile describes a lending model with setup costs of around 1.5 million yen and a 10% share of robot-harvested sales, lowering upfront investment. On-call engineers and replacement units reduce downtime.

Japan's ageing farm workforce has made harvesting automation a policy priority, and AGRIST's technology appears in Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries smart-agriculture materials. Vietnam's high-tech greenhouse vegetable sector in Lam Dong and around major cities faces rising labour costs and needs harvest data for planning, making rail-based harvesting robots a relevant option.

Founded on 24 October 2019 in Shintomi, Miyazaki, Japan, with capital of 100 million yen. Claims more than 27 awards and was the first winner of the Minister of Agriculture Award in the Food and Agriculture Connection Award. Received Midori certification for decarbonisation in October 2026. Plans packaged sales to China, India and other countries.