On 23 August 2026, the first Turpan Smart Grape Industry High-Quality Development Conference was held alongside the 32nd Silk Road Turpan Grape Festival in Turpan, Xinjiang. During the event, the vine-fruit harvesting robot developed by MEINONG ROBOT CO., LIMITED entered the vineyard, demonstrating cluster recognition, positioning and gentle picking under trellis cultivation—one of the festival’s most watched field demonstrations.
On-site video shows the robot working continuously among the vines: a yellow mobile chassis travelling between rows, a lifting platform raising the arm to trellis height, and the end effector aligning with ripe clusters to cut and place them. Bunches hang densely on the canopy while a harvest crate follows the arm, capturing a full mechanical picking sequence.
According to Turpan local media, China News Service and Tianshannet, the robot can pick a grape cluster in about 10 seconds, more than 300 clusters per hour, with a daily capacity of up to 15,000 jin (about 7,500 kg)—roughly 6 to 10 times manual harvesting. It combines an adjustable lifting platform with a high-precision compliant arm for accurate cluster positioning and damage-free picking, and can also support in-field spraying, reducing prolonged stooping for growers. Reports also note a runtime of up to 12 hours on a full charge.
Two units are already operating with the Shanshan County Supply and Marketing Cooperative Federation, and the company has set up a farm-service centre in Shanshan County to support the peak harvest window. Turpan is among China’s largest contiguous grape-growing regions, with about 630,000 mu under vines; bringing intelligent picking into real orchards helps stabilise output and cut fruit loss when labour is scarce.
MEINONG ROBOT has long focused on recognition and harvesting engineering for grapes and other vine fruits. In June this year the company opened a grape-picking robot R&D and training base in Shanshan; the festival field demonstration is a further public validation of the solution moving from trials toward scaled service.
Primary third-party coverage: Turpan Net / Pomegranate Cloud; Turpan Media Center; China News Service Xinjiang; Tianshannet; Turpan municipal government reprint.