With only a few days left until Agritechnica 2025 in Hannover, PeK Automotive — a Slovenian company specializing in agricultural robotics — is set to present its latest robotic solutions for specialty crops such as orchards and vineyards. At booth G32, hall 21, visitors will see live demonstrations of the fully autonomous Fruit Picker, designed for automated fruit harvesting, along with the company’s established Slopehelper and Agilehelper systems.
Fruit Picker revolutionizes fruit harvesting
The Fruit Picker is a fully electric and autonomous robot developed to perform fruit harvesting — primarily apples — on various terrains, including uneven and sloped surfaces. It operates smoothly with minimal human intervention.
Equipped with robotic arms and an advanced vision system, it can detect and gently pick fruit using AI-based image recognition, ensuring both high productivity and optimal quality. The company reports cost reductions of up to eight times compared to manual harvesting.
According to verified technical data, the Fruit Picker (or the “Apple Picker” attachment mounted on Slopehelper) features six manipulators — three rows of two arms — and achieves harvesting speeds of up to 2,500 fruits per hour. It handles fruit from 40 to 130 mm in diameter, operates within a picking height of 650 mm to 3,500 mm, and manages slopes up to 10 degrees.
It also integrates an automatic sorting system (color + laser) to collect only ripe fruit, optimizing harvest quality. While not all technical details are public — such as battery range or bin handling — the company’s development roadmap indicates a move toward a fully autonomous system covering fruit picking, loading, and in-field logistics.
Slopehelper and Agilehelper: full-cycle automation for orchards and vineyards
In addition to the Fruit Picker, the company will display its Slopehelper and Agilehelper robots, designed for continuous, year-round work in specialty crops.
Slopehelper is a rugged, all-electric autonomous platform capable of operating on slopes and under GNSS-free navigation through sensors and onboard AI. Reported specifications include up to 12–14 hours of operation per charge, slope handling up to 42 degrees, and a 48 V electric drive that eliminates traditional hydraulics.
– It can be equipped with interchangeable modules for soil preparation, mowing, spraying, fruit collection, and pruning.
Agilehelper targets vineyards and smaller specialty crops. It performs bilateral spraying and grass cutting between rows, operating within narrow passages (about 1.25 m width) and reducing operational costs up to threefold compared to traditional methods.
Why this matters
In today’s European fruit-growing and viticulture sector — facing rising labor costs, sustainability challenges, and worker shortages — technologies like these mark a major step forward. Automating harvesting and crop-specific operations not only reduces cost per ton harvested but also improves consistency, efficiency, and environmental performance through zero-emission operation, reduced soil compaction, and precision targeting.
About the PeK Automotive
PeK Automotive is a Slovenian engineering company developing autonomous robotic solutions for agriculture. Its Agroline range — which includes Slopehelper, Agilehelper, and the Fruit Picker — showcases the company’s focus on integrating robotics, artificial intelligence, and precision agriculture.
With over a decade of mechatronic experience, the company combines advanced hardware and intelligent software to help farmers boost efficiency and sustainability. At Agritechnica 2025, its goal is to demonstrate to professionals and distributors how robotics is reshaping orchard and vineyard management.
