SCARLETT - SCAlable, structured and Resource efficient indoor robotic harvesting of LETTuce

If a robot had to pick up an apple in darkness, should we build a complex AI based vision system or just 'switch on' the light? The same is the challenge of getting robots working in 'harsh unstructured agricultural' settings with humanlike efficiency to be commercially viable. SCARLETT is an ambitious project that instead transforms how 'produce is grown in the farm' with 'structure, scalability', simplifying the harvesting 'workflows' into well-defined tasks where robots can be deployed to perform 'repetitive, laborious' jobs with high efficiency.

SCARLETT is a timely feasibility proejct becasue interlinked challenges like changing demographics (ageing population), immigration patterns, climate change, critical shortage of labour to perform 'repetitive, laborious' tasks in the farm are increasingly driving the trend towards farming innovation and adoption autonomous robotic harvesting technologies.

**Taking inspiration from industrial work cells**, SCARLETT envisions a 'work goes to robots' like redesign of harvesting process and embedding of Robotics/AI in such an environment Importantly, the innovation is bidirectional- modification of the farm, integration of robots to perform semi-structured tasks with high efficiency. SCARLETT will mitigate labour shortage faced by the industry, increase production to feed the population while being resource efficient and environment aware.