Farm Robotics Startup Wins First Residency at Test Site

Sami Robotics just became the first startup to win a fully sponsored slot at Reservoir Farms, a cutting-edge testing ground where agricultural technology meets actual dirt and crops in Salinas, California.

The company is building robots that can handle multiple farm tasks, starting with harvesting. They'll spend the residency testing their technology alongside real farmers in working fields, refining the robots based on feedback from the people who know farming best.

Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology is funding the residency as part of a larger $1.5 million partnership with Reservoir Farms. The investment reflects just how urgent the need has become for farming solutions that actually work in the field.

"Harvesting has long been the most challenging segment of mechanization for growers," said Walt Duflock, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Western Growers. The labor shortage in agriculture has pushed the industry to find reliable alternatives that can work alongside human crews.

Pascal Labrecque and Éric Lapalme, who co-founded Sami Robotics, see the residency as validation of their mission. Their team will have access to shared research space, commercially grown fields, equipment from partners like John Deere, and constant input from working farmers.

That feedback loop matters more than the technology itself, according to Lapalme. "Building agricultural robots is one thing; proving they can deliver value in real field conditions is another," he explained.

The Ripple Effect

Reservoir Farms has transformed into what CEO Danny Bernstein calls "the Olympic Village of agtech." Startups can now train in real growing conditions, iterate quickly, and bring working solutions to market faster than ever before.

The model helps founders avoid the expensive trial-and-error that kills most agricultural technology before it reaches farmers. When innovations work at Reservoir Farms, they're already field-tested and grower-approved.

Western Growers represents family farmers who grow over half the nation's fresh fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts. Their backing of Sami Robotics sends a clear message: the agriculture industry is ready to invest in solutions that help farmers keep feeding America, even as the workforce challenges grow.

If Sami's robots succeed at Reservoir Farms, they could help farms across the country harvest crops more reliably while creating new opportunities for workers to operate advanced technology instead of doing backbreaking manual labor.