North East robotics specialist Wootzano has signed a $47 million deal in the US that it claims could be transformative for the business. The county Durham-based company that develops machines that are able to carefully pick up fruits and other vegetables that need to be packed has entered into a 3-year contract with an unnamed company which will see the robots distributed across California. Wootzano states that the contract has a broad impact which could significantly contribute to California’s economic development by increasing the agriculture industry, which generates billions of dollars.

Wootzano’s technology is based on a human skin that provides robot arms more sense of smell and feel needed for the delicate packing of soft fruits and other vegetables. It can calculate the how much weight the products weigh and determine the quality before packaging the fresh fruits and vegetables into punnets that are then delivered to the retailers.

Source: business-live.co.uk