Tomato Harvesting & Mobile Robotics Powered by xArm
TsukArm Robotics
In Short
Headquartered in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, TsukArm Robotics is a Japan-based robot-arm specialist providing robot arm sales, robot vision development, and IoT/edge integration services. Their tagline, “Robot Arm Professionals,” reflects a dual mandate: making advanced robot arms accessible to Japanese customers, and applying those arms to real-world automation challenges through in-house development.
TsukArm’s technical team has built high-profile demonstration applications using the xArm, including a vision-guided tomato harvesting robot that autonomously detects and picks ripe fruit from greenhouse plants, and a mobile robot system that transports bottles using xArm precision motion control. These projects showcase xArm’s ROS compatibility and open SDK as the foundation for sensor-integrated automation.
Customer Profile
Company:
TsukArm Robotics Inc.
Industry:
Agriculture
Region
Japan
Application:
Tomato Harvesting, Mobile Robot Transport
Robot Used:
UFACTORY xArm
Key Benefits
ROS compatibility for sensor-integrated research applications
Open Python/C++ SDK enables custom automation logic
Lightweight design suited for mobile platforms Accessible pricing enables small-scale automation investment
Tasks Solved
xArm mounted on a mobile platform navigates greenhouse rows, identifies ripe tomatoes using computer vision, and picks them autonomously—demonstrating ROS-integrated manipulation in an unstructured agricultural environment.
xArm integrated onto a mobile robot base picks up and transports bottles between locations—combining arm precision with platform mobility for flexible intralogistics tasks.
Benefits Achieved
Demonstrated viable xArm integration with ROS and computer vision for agricultural robotics—an application domain requiring real-time sensing, unstructured environment handling, and gentle force control.
Established a reference platform for Japanese universities, agri-tech startups, and manufacturers evaluating robot arm automation for the first time.
The Challenge
Japan faces one of the world’s most acute agricultural labor shortages. An aging farming population and shrinking rural workforce are pushing greenhouse operators and agri-tech developers to explore robotic harvesting—but the complexity of the task is significant. Tomatoes grow in clusters on vines, with ripe and unripe fruit intermingled, partially occluded by leaves, and variable in position from plant to plant. A harvesting robot must see in color and depth, plan collision-free approach paths, and apply precisely controlled force to detach fruit without damage.
For TsukArm, the challenge was finding a robot arm capable of meeting these technical demands while remaining practical enough to deploy outside a controlled factory setting. Agricultural robotics requires ROS compatibility for sensor fusion and motion planning, a lightweight design that can be mounted on a mobile platform, and a price point that makes R&D investment realistic for startups and research teams.
At the same time, TsukArm’s role as distributor meant they needed a product they could stand behind technically—one they could support, customize, and demonstrate to Japanese customers who were evaluating robot arms for the first time.
Why UFACTORY
When TsukArm evaluated robot arms for both their own application development and their distribution business, xArm matched on every dimension that matters in the Japanese market.
Native ROS support, out of the box. Agricultural harvesting and mobile robotics both depend on ROS for sensor integration, motion planning, and real-time control. xArm ships with a ready-to-use ROS package, allowing TsukArm’s engineers to connect camera feeds, plan trajectories, and run custom control loops without building middleware from scratch.
Lightweight enough to go on a mobile platform. At under 13 kg for the xArm 6, the arm can be mounted on a mobile robot base without dominating the payload budget. This is a prerequisite for any autonomous harvesting or intralogistics application that needs the arm to move through a space rather than stay fixed to a workbench.
Flexible mounting for unconventional installations. xArm supports ceiling, wall, and angled mounting—opening up installation options that conventional robot arms do not. For greenhouse and service robotics applications where floor space is constrained and approach angles matter, this flexibility translates directly into deployable solutions.
Open SDK for custom automation. TsukArm’s applications require custom control logic: vision-based target selection, dynamic path re-planning, and integration with third-party sensors. The Python and C++ SDK gave the team full programmatic access without proprietary constraints, accelerating development from concept to working demo.
A price point that makes Japanese SME adoption realistic. Japan’s small and mid-sized manufacturers and agri-tech developers are cost-sensitive. xArm’s pricing—well below comparable arms from major industrial robot brands—gives TsukArm a compelling offer: industrial-grade performance at a scale of investment that a research lab or small manufacturer can actually approve.
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