Arugga Polly+ Pollination & Louie Plant-Lowering Robots

Arugga AI Farming is an Israel-based start-up that develops multi-purpose robots for greenhouse automation. It targets the cost of greenhouse labour, which it says accounts for 30 to 50% of operating costs, and the limits of bumblebee pollination, offering robots that also gather plant data. Its robots work in commercial greenhouses in Australia, Europe and America, with users including Thanet Earth and FoodVentures.

Polly+, the second-generation pollination robot, uses cameras and AI vision to find flowers ready for pollination, then fires calibrated air pulses to replicate buzz pollination without contact or hives. One robot covers a hectare and one operator can manage up to 20 robots. Louie, launched in 2025, automates lowering of tomato and cucumber plants at 300 plants per hour. Both robots collect flower-level data, plant counts and weights, and early pest signals, and an Arugga X ViewNetic module monitors plants daily for disease outbreaks.

• AI flower detection: cameras and computer vision identify flowers ready for pollination.
• Air-pulse pollination: calibrated pulses replicate bumblebee buzz pollination without contact.
• Fleet operation: one robot per hectare, with one operator managing up to 20 robots.
• Louie plant lowering: lowers tomato and cucumber plants at 300 plants per hour, two robots per hectare.
• Crop data: flower-level insights, plant count and weight for yield prediction and anomaly detection.
• Pest and disease monitoring: Arugga X ViewNetic gives early warning of outbreaks for local treatment.

Greenhouse tomato producers in Lam Dong can use Polly+ to replace manual vibration pollination and gather flower data. Large cucumber and tomato greenhouses near Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City can deploy Louie to cut labour for plant lowering. Agricultural technology distributors can bundle the robots with greenhouse climate systems.

Growers have reported 3 to 7% yield improvements where robots were deployed, and Arugga reports up to 20% higher yields than manual pollination. Polly+ is twice as fast as its predecessor and works under LED lighting and UV screening where bees struggle. Non-contact pollination limits disease spread by bees. Louie handles plants up to 10 kg and runs on a 17-hour battery, cutting one of the most labour-intensive greenhouse tasks.

Greenhouse growers worldwide face rising labour costs and restrictions or biosecurity concerns around imported bumblebees, which favours mechanical pollination and task robots. Vietnam's expanding high-tech greenhouse tomato and cucumber production in Lam Dong and peri-urban areas faces rising labour pressure, making robotic pollination and plant handling relevant.

Israel-based start-up. Commercial greenhouse deployments in Australia, Europe and America; earlier items name Agrifutura Oy in Finland and Biobest as distributor for the US and Canada. Louie was shortlisted for the Greentech 2025 Innovation Concept Award. Users include Thanet Earth and FoodVentures.