Driving on-farm productivity with augmented technologies for fruit growers (AS23002)

What is it all about?

This program is exploring two advanced types of technology within the berry and table grape industries: augmented, virtual and mixed reality innovations (such as augmented reality headsets, smart phone applications or specialised cameras) applied to mobile devices, and artificial intelligence (such as machine learning models for tasks like real-time image processing, pattern recognition, and data processing)

This project will help berry and table grape growers boost their profitability through adopting technology that can improve their fruit picking, automate their quality control processes, improve their training approaches and enhance the way they make on-farm decisions. While this program is focused on berry and table grape growers, there is scope to scale the same solutions to other crops in the future.

The project is working with two cutting-edge technology providers:

Clarifruit (project still underway)

Clarifuit are standardising the way fruit quality is evaluated to reduce rejections and food waste along the supply chain. The standardisation process will be enabled by fully automating quality control and removing human judgement from the process. This will be done by providing quality inspectors with AI-powered augmented reality technology along the supply chain.

Think.digital (project completed)

This project assessed whether immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality could realistically improve on‑farm productivity for Australian table grape and berry growers. The research delivered clear, evidence‑based guidance on where these technologies can and cannot add value right now. The key finding was that immersive data visualisation is not currently viable at an industry‑wide level. However, the project identified strong, near‑term opportunities for immersive technologies in workforce training and capability development.

The project engaged 25 growers, agronomists, educators and advisors through interviews, focus groups and on‑farm demonstrations across Mildura, Coffs Harbour and Adelaide. It tested real examples of virtual reality data environments, augmented reality wearables, smart glasses and training simulations to gather practical feedback. Tangible outputs included a detailed research report, industry presentations, stakeholder engagement activities and live technology demonstrations that helped participants understand both the potential and limits of these tools.

The project addressed the challenge of increasing interest in digital tools without clear evidence of grower benefit. It found major barriers to immersive data use, including poor connectivity, inconsistent data capture, fragmented systems and a strong reliance on experience‑based decision‑making. In contrast, growers clearly saw value in immersive tools for training, safety, multilingual onboarding and remote expert support.

These insights will help industry avoid premature investment in unready technologies and refocus effort on higher‑value priorities. The findings will guide future R&D towards workforce training tools, improved data literacy and stronger extension support, building foundations for more advanced digital tools in the future.