Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Service of Postharvest

MAF RODA Group will attend Fruit Attraction 2026 with a technological proposal focused on the design of smart fruit and vegetable packing houses, conceived to address the new challenges of efficiency, traceability, quality and automation facing the sector. The company will highlight the progressive integration of artificial intelligence and robotics throughout the entire production process of postharvest facilities, from fruit sorting to packing and end-of-line operations.

Against a backdrop of increasingly demanding requirements from retailers and end consumers, quality sorting has become one of the most strategic and complex processes within any fruit and vegetable packing house. Ensuring consistent quality, batch after batch, requires technologies capable of analysing each piece of fruit accurately, providing objective selection criteria and enabling faster, more consistent decision-making.

To respond to this market evolution, MAF RODA Group has developed electronic quality systems incorporating artificial intelligence, with Globalscan 7 AI as one of its technological benchmarks. This platform enhances fruit analysis capabilities and is complemented by specific software solutions such as the Smart range for citrus and avocado, as well as QS software applied to cherries, blueberries and stone fruit. In addition to integrating AI into selection criteria, these solutions incorporate an additional layer of improvement to the user experience, simplifying equipment operation and making quality management on the packing house floor more accessible.

Within this approach, Berryscan G7 plays a prominent role as an advanced electronic sorting system for blueberries. Equipped with multispectral cameras, 360° fruit rotation and AI-based technology, it can analyse parameters such as colour, diameter, morphology and external quality, while detecting defects with greater precision. Its integration with BerryQS, the quality software developed for this segment, enhances the system’s autonomy and enables more intuitive, precise operation tailored to the specific needs of each packing house.

The latest evolution of the BerryQS software also incorporates functionalities designed to assess attributes linked to the consumer experience, such as the sweetness and acidity levels of each fruit. With this development, MAF RODA Group is moving towards more comprehensive blueberry sorting, combining appearance, external condition and organoleptic criteria to achieve greater consistency in the final product and help marketers respond to one of today’s key market demands: offering fruit that is consistent, attractive and aligned with consumer expectations.

The other major innovation that MAF RODA Group will present at this edition of Fruit Attraction will be Fast Pack AI Lemon, a solution that marks a significant step forward in the automation of citrus packing. The packing stage, traditionally labour-intensive and particularly sensitive to changes in format, size or order requirements, is taking a decisive step towards a more flexible, intelligent and autonomous model. In this area, Fast Pack AI Lemon combines artificial intelligence, machine vision, robotics and advanced automation to respond more quickly and accurately to the requirements of packing houses and their commercial customers.

The system can be configured using basic information about the packaging, fruit and size. Based on this data, the machine automatically maps the format using machine vision and determines the appropriate position for each lemon within the package. This ability to read, interpret and position the fruit makes Fast Pack AI Lemon a particularly relevant tool for reducing reliance on manual adjustments, speeding up format changes and improving the consistency of the final result on lines handling a wide variety of formats.

Beyond automating the physical packing operation, the innovation lies in the equipment’s ability to bring intelligence to the process. Fast Pack AI Lemon does more than perform a repetitive operation: it interprets the product, adapts the arrangement of the fruit to the required position and enables a more agile production response to changing orders. For fruit and vegetable packing houses, this represents a step towards more stable packing lines, with less operational complexity, greater process control and an improved ability to meet increasingly demanding commercial specifications.

Its connectivity adds another dimension to the smart packing house concept: the machine can be monitored and controlled from a mobile application anywhere within the facility, strengthening real-time management, improving the responsiveness of the plant team and contributing to a more flexible, traceable and connected operation.

Within end-of-line automation, Strauss, a subsidiary of the MAF RODA Group, will also present an automatic bagging, sealing and weighing unit for apples. The solution integrates the placement of fruit into polyethylene bags, sealing and weight control into a single process, incorporating information such as variety and EAN code to enhance traceability and optimise packing operations.

Fruit Attraction, an international showcase for the smart packing house

With this proposal, MAF RODA Group reinforces its position as an international benchmark in postharvest technology solutions, integrating artificial intelligence, robotics, machine vision and advanced automation into a packing house model designed to improve productivity, reduce operational complexity and raise quality standards across the fruit and vegetable industry.

The trade fair will provide the setting for the company to demonstrate how these technologies are transforming every stage of the production process, from fruit reception through to dispatch. This comprehensive vision places digitalisation, automation and applied intelligence at the heart of the evolution of fruit and vegetable packing houses.

All these solutions will be on display on 6, 7 and 8 October at Fruit Attraction 2026, in Hall 10, Stand 10D21.

Fuente: Maf Roda group