The use of robotic or automated machines in orchard operations is associated primarily with insufficient labor availability and rapidly increasing labor costs in tree fruit production and is critical for improving yield of high-quality fruit with minimal dependence on seasonal human labor. Primarily, mechanized or robotic orchard management operations (after establishment of the trees) include pruning, thinning, spraying and harvesting.Pruning is an operation to grow fruit trees into a desired shape for improving sunlight penetration into the canopies, supporting more effective (e.g. more human-and machinefriendly) orchard operations, and regulating location and amount of fruiting sites that can lead to improved yield and quality of fruit. Pruning is physically cutting and removing parts of a tree, such as cutting branches back and/or removing small limbs entirely following some guidelines. This operation requires workers have a specific level of knowledge and skill to perform the job well. Pruning is performed both in the winter (also called "dormant pruning") and in the summer. Currently, research and development of robotic pruning is focused primarily on dormant pruning, therefore, we will focus on dormant pruning for the remainder of this chapter.Fruit trees' bloom often includes many more flowers than are required for producing desired yield and quality of a commercial crop. Crop thinning is a practice to manage/control crop load by removing a portion of the bloom and/or young fruit on the tree either selectively or non-selectively to improve the size and quality of the remaining fruit. Thinning is commonly performed during and shortly after the bloom period to reduce the number of set fruit using either chemical thinners or physical means. However, thinning can occur later in the season to remove poor quality fruit or those growing too close together to ensure good quality and size of the remaining ones using only physical means. Currently research and development of robotic thinning technologies is more focused on blossom thinning, and therefore, we will focus on this aspect of thinning in this chapter.Pest control is an essential operation in orchard management to protect the yield and quality of fruit from various types of pests. One solution to achieve effective pest control is to spray recommended pesticides at the correct time and correct rate to the target area. Due to the confined environment in tree fruit orchards, spraying pesticides is inherently hazardous for the operators driving a sprayer. Robotic sprayers are probably the best solution to ensure operator safety and efficiency in pest control.Fruit harvesting for fresh market consumption requires a large seasonal semi-skilled workforce which has created a critical labor-related risk of not having enough workers to perform this time-sensitive task. In addition, harvesting labor is already the most significant
