About

Tree fruit production is increasingly unsustainable in the light of diminishing availability and increasing costs of farm labor. Various labor-intensive orchard operations such as harvesting, pruning and thinning also pose worker health and safety issues. Center of Excellence for Orchard Robotics (CORe), a USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI)-funded center of excellence, brings together a trans-disciplinary team of researchers and industry partners in developing systems solutions for automating orchard operations, integrating socio-economic, horticultural and engineering innovations, and broadening their adoption. CORe is built on the following principles.