Horticultural plants performance in concrete pedoclimatic conditions can be improved by substituting through grafting their root systems by those from other plants which are better adapted. Grafting also contribute to confer characteristics of the newly implanted root system to the plants such as resistance pests and diseases or drought tolerance. However, this operation is very labor intensive and time consuming in horticultural plants, making it not affordable.

Robotgraft allows automating this task. The robot is endowed with a set of arms that slide over planting trays where the plant and the rootstock are seeded in alternate rows. The arms have grippers that grab de plant stems. Then, a second arm set slides over the previous are set and grabs the stems so that a blade can pass between the two sets of arms and cut them. The second set of arms moves aligning the cut stems of the plant and the rootstocks and places a clip to fix them. Then, the arm releases the stems of the grafted plants and takes away the aerial part of the rootstock plant that has been previously cut. 

The company that has developed Robotgraft has been improving its performance and it is expected that will be able to graft 5000 plants an hour. This significantly reduces grafting time and work needs making it more affordable in horticultural plants.