Researchers at Washington State University hope to test a robotic apple picker this fall that is able to work fast enough and gently enough to make it economically viable, says Capital Press. A mechanical harvester would help growers overcome labor shortages, says the newspaper. But it is an engineering challenge to create a device that can maneuver around branches while holding the delicate fruit. At the moment, researchers are working on a device that uses eight motors to operate a mechanical arm and hand with the help of cameras and sensors. A robotic apple picker was tried in France in 2007 but was too slow and too expensive. It did the job at one-fourth the rate of humans.