South Korea Completes Breakthrough Robot Harvesting Trial as Metafarmers Advances ‘Omni Farmer’ Platform

South Korea’s agricultural robotics push has taken a major step forward. Metafarmers, an AI-driven agtech company, announced that it has successfully completed the Regulatory Innovation Robot Demonstration Project: Cucumber Robot Development and Demonstration Project, supported by the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement.

Launched in March last year, the initiative set out to achieve what many in the industry still consider elusive: a robotic gripper capable of harvesting cucumbers with a 99% success rate. To get there, Metafarmers integrated advanced AI vision—using visual servoing to guide robot motion via image sensors—into a precision-designed gripper, resulting in a stable, automated harvesting system.

The company is now building on that progress through the development of Omni Farmer, a multipurpose agricultural robot designed to perform harvesting, pollination, sorting, and crop monitoring from a single modular platform. Equipped with its specialized gripper and AI recognition suite, the robot can operate across traditional fields, vertical farms, and large-scale greenhouses.

Metafarmers' Omnipharmer is currently demonstrating automatic cucumber harvesting at the farms of demand institutions. Source: Metafarmers

Metafarmers’ hardware team repeatedly tested prototypes inside commercial greenhouses, refining gripping techniques and structural design to prevent crop damage and maintain produce quality. The team also used cucumber growth data to create a digital twin of the crop environment, enabling more accurate multi-object recognition and adaptable picking strategies.

The pilot confirmed what the global market has struggled to achieve: a viable, field-ready automated cucumber harvesting system. With modular grippers, the company plans to scale the technology to other crops, including apples, strawberries, and leafy greens. A large smart farm in Seosan is already hosting demonstrations of the Omni Farmer in preparation for its commercial debut in strawberry harvesting.

“This research shows that agricultural automation can move beyond laboratory trials and perform reliably in real farm environments,” said Metafarmers CEO Lee Kyuhwa. “We will continue expanding into additional crops, driving agricultural innovation that boosts productivity and sustainability.”