An April 14th article on Inhabitat.com references an April 12th article on Discovery.com, and both discuss the work of Professor Yael Edan of Ben Gurion University, who is seeking to create robots that both learn like humans and have vision systems capable of discriminating between various types of produce, even when upside down or only partially visible. Both articles also quote Professor Bernie Engel of Purdue University discussing how robots might alleviate labor crunches associated with the harvest of perishables.

Update: This report from Feb. 16th provides more detail about the connection between the ongoing work at Ben Gurion University and the european consortium mentioned but not specified in the above articles.