Amid national policies promoting agricultural modernization and reducing labor burden, the CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute innovation center served as a bridge. On 26 June 2025, it introduced incubated company MEINONG ROBOT to Research Professor Ren Yang of the CUHK Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering—also Director of the CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute—and his research team. Both sides held an in-depth exchange on fruit and vegetable picking robot technology and reached a preliminary cooperation intent.
MEINONG ROBOT joined the innovation center in February 2024. The company applies AI and robotics to fruit growing, with a current focus on harvesting to address aging demographics, farm labor shortages and recruitment challenges—aiming to cut growing costs, reduce fruit loss and improve commercial quality. While engineering milestones have been achieved, the team seeks continued academic partnership on precise produce recognition and intelligent control in complex field environments.
CUHK brings deep expertise in robotics and AI. Founder Li Deyong presented MEINONG's development path, product architecture and R&D needs; Prof. Ren's team shared advances in vision algorithm optimization and refined manipulator control, with optimization suggestions for MEINONG products.
Both parties hope to build on this exchange to strengthen industry–academia collaboration. Source: CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute.