A hallmark of agricultural robotics is the need to function in unstructured environments, such as crop fields, fruit trees, leaf-level foliage. Industrial robots, by contrast, operate within standardized environments and deal with rigid, regularly-shaped objects. Oddly shaped and deformable biomaterials are challenging to handle and manipulate. In the case of fruits, the handling should not cause inadvertent damage and be able to distinguish ripeness level. As a first project, the team will research, develop and test a new type of soft robot gripper capable of picking a variety of fruit securely and without damage, after accurately assessing ripeness. The developed gripper will accommodate: blueberries, strawberries, bananas, peaches, and apples. It must also be low-cost, lightweight, provide tactile feedback, and be self-contained. The team’s initial project will span 3 years: Year 1: problem definition, research current state of the art, determine approach, preliminary proof of concept, validation of approach’s key technologies; Year 2: design and fabrication of soft robot gripper; Year 3: fabrication of soft robot gripper (continued), testing and evaluation, re-iteration, steps to productization.