You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here There has been a lot of fantastic games this year, and April 2025 has been especially fantastic. Even though it was leaked, the Oblivion remaster has just been shadowdropped, meanwhile, the month has previously seen excellent releases like Blue Prince. While Blue Prince is free with PS Plus Extra, PS Plus subscribers can buy the other highest rated game of 2025 cheaper before it releases in an exclusive deal. PS Plus subscribers can get highest rated game of 2025 cheaper The highest rated game of 2025 is currently a stalemate between Blue Prince and Clair Obscur Expedition 33. On Metacritic, both are tied at first place with an exceptional metascore of 92. Below are the top 10 rated games of 2025 so far on Metacritic: Blue Prince – 92 Clair Obscur Expedition 33 – 92 Split Fiction – 91 The Talos Principle Reawakened – 90 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 – 88 Monster Hunter Wilds – 88 The Rottrees are Dead – 87 Lonely Mountains Snow Riders – 87 Bionic Bay – 87 Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition – 86 As the highest rated game of 2025 so far alongside Blue Prince, fans will be estatic to know that Clair Obscur 33 Expedition is releasing on April 24th. The game has all the visuals of a AAA masterpiece along with the excellent music, story, voice acting performances, gameplay, and everything else you’d expect from an epic. While it has all the qualities of a AAA game, its standard price is only £44.99. However, if you have a PS Plus subscription, no matter which tier, you can get it 10% off at £40.49 via PSN store. However, this exclusive deal for PS Plus members only lasts until 12AM PT/3AM ET/8AM BST on April 24th, so you must buy it quickly. The above prices are for the Standard edition, but there is a Deluxe package as well. This has a 10% exclusive deal, too, which takes its price down from £49.99 to £44.99. We’d recommend buying the Deluxe edition as it packs a couple of neat outfits and more. In other gaming news, Marvel Rivals players can win a free skin by beating our quiz. Related Topics PS Plus Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Epic Games has released numerous Marvel characters to Fortnite over the past few years. The game developer even had two Marvel seasons, which have been very popular. Due to this, it’s unlikely that the partnership will stop anytime soon. The next wave of collaboration will bring Thunderbolts to Fortnite, and its release date is around the corner. Not only will the collaboration bring new cosmetics to the Item Shop, but a couple of them will be free as well. This includes White Widow, who will be available on Friday, April 25. What is the release date of the Fortnite x Thunderbolts collaboration? To grab Thunderbolts skins, you will have to wait until Wednesday, April 30. Both Winter Soldier and White Widow will come to the Fortnite Shop on this day. However, you’ll also be able to unlock White Widow five days earlier, as the skin will be given to top performers in the Thunderbolts Cup. Both Marvel characters will have a pickaxe and a back bling. On top of this, the skins will have their matching wraps, which you can also unlock for free. While the White Widow skin will be given to top performers in every region, the wraps do not have limited quantities. To unlock both of them, you need to earn 40 points in the upcoming cup. White Widow will be given to thousands of Fortnite players in the Thunderbolts Cup. Image by VideoGamer The price of these upcoming skins hasn’t been revealed yet. However, considering that Marvel skins cost at least 1,500 V-Bucks, we expect Thunderbolts to follow suit. Furthermore, all of the cosmetics should also be available in a bundle, which will likely cost around 3,000 V-Bucks. If you want even more cosmetics, check out our guide for free skins in Fortnite. Right after the Thunderbolts Cup, you’ll be able to unlock the Elite Zadie skin for free, so don’t miss this opportunity! Fortnite Platform(s): Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X Genre(s): Action, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter 9 VideoGamer Related Topics Fortnite Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

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As it tunrs out, plenty of people are interested in playing a revamped version of something most of them likely sunk thousands of hours into years ago. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered shadow-dropped yesterday and its initial player number peak on Steam has instantly leapfrogged all but one of 2025's other single player releases so far. Read more

Prince of Modness Oblivion Remastered doesn't have official mod support: cue over 85 mods in less than 24 hours, including six different attempts to make it look more like the original Yep, that sounds about right. Image credit: Bethesda News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on April 23, 2025 Well, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is now out in the world, and it doesn't have any official mod support. Not that the latter's made any difference, though, because as of writing over 80 mods have already arrived for it in less than 24 hours, including at least seven attempts to recreate those classic 2006 visuals. Oh, and what looks like an early script extender that might help facilitate more advanced mods than your usual reshades and minor gameplay tweaks. Yeah, I think we should be occupied for a while longer as we all wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 to release some time this century. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In its official FAQ about Oblivion Remastered published after the game shadow-dropped, Bethesda confirmed that "Mods are not supported for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered". It added the usual sentiment you'd expect, encouraging folks having issues playing with mods to try getting rid of them as a fix. VG247 has reached out to the publisher to see if we can get 100% confirmation that this definitely means there's no chance of the game potentially getting some official modding tools further down the line. It certainly doesn't have any as of writing, though. No matter, though. We're less than a day on from release, and there are already 90 mods available for the Oblivion remaster via Nexus Mods - a number that's still steadily growing by the hour. Among those which've been released so far are at least six different reshades designed to make the remaster's visuals more closely resemble the original's technicolour fever dream, just in case the nostalgia ain't powerful enough as is - seriously, look at all of these 2006-inspired reshades, dude. Outside of those, you'll find the usual performance tweaks and slight gameplay changes, but a couple of things have caught my eye. First of all, there's 'UE4SS for OblivionRemastered', which is an early script extender, and so might help facilitate more advanced stuff like quest mods once modders really get the hang of the game. Then, there's 'The Player Random Conversation System - Remastered', an OG Oblivion mod that expands the game's dialogue a bit by giving the player a bunch more random options in conversations. In the comments its creator thejazzcat117 revealed that aside from fixing some bugs, the porting process was straightforward, writing: "I used the original creation kit. Mods that are script-focused should be low-effort to port. Mods that use assets or require a script extender however? Those are not supported (I hope it changes!!)". We'll have to see how things evolve mod-wise with the Oblivion remaster, but I'd certainly bet on modders continuing to find ways to do what they want, and make it easier for others to follow suit.

Defendant has so far evaded complaints.Back in November 2024, we covered a case in which Nintendo of America had filed a lawsuit against an individual who had "repeatedly streamed pirated and emulated" Switch games while also using social media to promote Switch emulators to the general public.Now, after defendant Jesse Keighin – known under the online alias 'Every Game Guru' – failed to respond to Nintendo's complaints, the latter is seeking a default judgement from the court and a total of $17,500 in damages alongside a permanent injunction against Keighin, effectively ordering him to refrain from any infringing activities going forward while destroying "all circumvention devices" that may be in his possession.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Update: This Cloud had a silver lining.Just when you thought the messaging around Nintendo's 'Switch 2 Edition' games couldn't get any more confusing, another discovery comes along to stir things up even further. Looking at the game's store pages, it seems some upcoming titles won't support the Nintendo Switch Online Cloud Save feature — or maybe they will, it's all a bit confusing (thanks for the heads up, Eurogamer).As was pointed out in a recent Resetera thread by user RandomlyRandom67, the Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch 2 Edition page on Nintendo's website houses the following disclaimer: "Please note: this software does not support the Nintendo Switch Online paid membership's Save Data Cloud backup feature".Read the full article on nintendolife.com

As additive manufacturing scales beyond prototyping into sustained production, the metal powder segment is confronting a new wave of pressures—technical, logistical, and geopolitical. At the 2025 AMUG Conference, an industry panel featuring executives from Elementum 3D, Amaero, Equispheres, IperionX, and America Makes, leaders identified the challenges in aligning supply chains with rapidly shifting demand, tightening U.S. sourcing regulations, and the fragmented nature of specifications and data ownership. From qualification hurdles to overlooked issues, the conversation shows an industry ready for an inflection point but still grappling with legacy systems and immature infrastructure. Insights from the Building a Resilient Supply Chain, Securing Critical Metals for Additive Manufacturing panel Additive has a voice but not a seat at the critical minerals table. Other industries dominate the supply of key elements like scandium, titanium, and hafnium. Additive manufacturing needs to assert its strategic importance in those sourcing discussions.The next big push is cross-industry knowledge transfer. Initiatives like America Makes’ new track signal that the community is moving toward transparency, owning failures, and sharing them to speed collective learning.Specification writing is a hidden efficiency lever. Properly written, application-specific powder specs can lower costs and improve performance, but the know-how is often missing outside of a small group of powder insiders.Legacy sustainment systems are at odds with modern AM flexibility. OEM-proprietary materials, rigid specs, and old standards make modernization difficult. Bridging this gap requires coordinated education, especially with buyers and engineers at the spec-writing stage.Material handling issues are often logistical, not technical. Problems arise less from material chemistry, but from lidless bins, humidity, and local fire code misunderstandings: simple things with outsized consequences. Jacob Nuechterlein, Greg Kline, Ben DiMarco and Chris Prue [L-R]. Photo by Michael Petch. US Metal Powder Leaders Grapple with Additive Manufacturing’s Demand Forecasting and Qualification Bottlenecks Metal Additive Manufacturing is navigating deep uncertainty around demand forecasting, qualification cycles, and standardization, tensions laid bare during this recent panel at the 2025 AMUG Conference. “The timeline is very difficult to nail down,” said Jacob Nuechterlein, president and founder of Elementum 3D, a U.S. firm developing proprietary metal alloys. “From testing to qualification might be predictable, six months to a year, but once you get into qualification, it can stretch one to two years or even longer due to political and technical hurdles.” Greg Kline of Amaero, which supplies high-temperature metal powders like titanium and refractory metals, echoed the concern. “You go down that path of development, and then the end customer pulls the plug. What do you do with all that work you did?” he said. “Staying in front of this is no easy task.” The issue is not merely one of erratic demand, but of the present instability of the AM metals market. As Evan Butler-Jones, VP of Product and Strategy at Equispheres, put it, “It’s not a stable, pre-existing market… most production programs are emerging alongside new materials.” Underscoring the cooperative nature of supply chain building, the VP added, “We need our customers to understand we are building the supply chain together.” A fragmented approach to intellectual property and data has further slowed progress. Elementum 3D, for instance, has taken a process-oriented approach to IP rather than focusing on individual chemistries. But the larger bottleneck, Nuechterlein said, is data collection. “It’s expensive to gather and often split across entities,” he explained, pointing to the difficulty in translating data from one system, such as an EOS M290, to another like an SLM 500. Ben DiMarco, Technology Transition Director at America Makes, referenced a recurring refrain from his collaborators at the Air Force: “It’s two years and $2 million for qualified material.” He added that America Makes, whose efforts align closely with the Department of Defense (DoD), is working to prioritize materials based on industry demand to guide government-backed investments. “We don’t want to make strategic investments in materials that no one will use.” Efforts to streamline qualification were a recurring theme. Amaero is now producing new alloys directly on production units, bypassing the need for later scale-up. Kline is hoping this will “shorten the gap” to market. Equispheres is heavily involved in standards committees to move beyond the “single supplier, single machine” approach that has historically stymied qualification. Butler-Jones pointed to the need to balance process stability with innovation: “How do you allow for change while locking down your process?” In response, DiMarco highlighted recent progress, including a publicly available process control document and evolving DoD programs focused on performance-based qualification. “Here’s my requirement: do I meet it or not?” he said, characterizing the shift from static specifications toward goal-oriented frameworks. Progress is visible, “there have been massive changes,” said Nuechterlein. “Three or four years ago, I could spend $2 million on data, and it would only be accepted by one customer. Now, we know what’s required to get broader acceptance. That’s helped with cost and decision-making.” The consensus among panelists is clear: technical innovation in AM metals is outpacing supply chain and qualification infrastructure. But a coordinated effort across industry, government, and standards bodies is gradually shifting the landscape from an ad hoc scramble to something resembling strategic cohesion. Evan Butler-Jones, Jacob Nuechterlein and Greg Kline [L-R]. Photo by Michael Petch. US Additive Metal Leaders Target Domestic Supply Chain, Data Standardization, and Refractory Innovation Amid Rising Demand The additive manufacturing industry continues to wrestle with complexity in material sourcing, qualification cycles, and sustainability. These challenges are made more pressing by government pressure to onshore supply chains and rising demand for next-generation refractory alloys. For Amaero’s Kline, the conversation begins with consistency across the full production chain. “Ten years ago, you had wild variations from machine to machine,” he said. “Now, things are more consistent, powder, sieve, and dust collectors. If we can align across the value chain, we can progress further.” Discussion around group purchasing organizations (GPOs), often used in healthcare to reduce procurement costs for commoditized products, revealed both interest and skepticism. “That’s not a good way to build a supply chain,” said Evan Butler-Jones, VP of Product & Strategy at Equispheres. “It’s a good way to optimize an existing one.” Still, Butler-Jones acknowledged that coordinating demand across OEMs could help reduce supplier risk, “If five OEMs are all buying the same material, they each want to commit to a minimum, but no one wants to commit to the maximum. Consolidating that demand, without commoditizing specialty powders, could help.” Elementum 3D’s Nuechterlein underscored the capital intensity behind even small-scale material bets. “A lot of material suppliers have been taking the risk,” he said. “As a small company, I have to answer to investors about which powders hit and which are still sitting on the shelf.” The pilot-scale conundrum, where customers request 200–1000kg batches without committing to follow-up orders, was flagged as a persistent bottleneck. “You clean all your equipment, maybe don’t get it right the first time, then the customer takes two or three years to test it,” said Ben DiMarco, Technology Transition Director at America Makes. “It’s unsustainable.” In response, America Makes is assembling an industry advisory board to prioritize melt and atomization for critical materials. The institute is also calling for more input from two often-absent perspectives: purchasing teams and downstream part producers. On sustainability, panelists agreed that material waste management must be integrated early, not post-hoc. Amaero repurposes off-spec powders in its large-format parts program. “Instead of stockpiling oversized refractory material, we consolidate it into 5000-pound valves, such as might be used for a submarine said Kline. Equispheres emphasizes reusability and sourcing from low-carbon aluminum producers in Canada, using hydropower or nuclear power for atomization. “We’ve just published a paper on reusability for laser powder bed fusion,” said Butler-Jones. “When you start printing several tons a month, that efficiency adds up.” At Elementum 3D, the focus is on closed-loop feedstock. “Customers are asking if their own scrap can be recycled into new powder,” Nuechterlein said. “It’s possible, but you spend more qualifying it than on new material. Still, it’s being seriously explored.” Critical materials remain central to the conversation. “With recent government focus, we’re seeing pull in everything, especially titanium and the refractory segment,” said Kline. “Hypersonics is big C-103 [a niobium-hafnium-titanium alloy], for example. But once you start working with hafnium, you realize how thin that supply chain really is.” While hypersonics may attract attention, Nuechterlein cautioned on volume. “The total demand is relatively low,” he noted. “We’re seeing more opportunity in high-temperature materials for rocketry, weaponry, and suppressors. Suppressors have exploded as an application—at SHOT Show, every third booth had a 3D printed one.” For DiMarco, modern usage patterns are reshaping legacy alloys. “Many materials we use were developed in the 1950s or 1960s. They were designed for different products and consumption rates. Today, cell phones and EVs are changing that equation.” Butler-Jones also highlighted the broader competition for resources. “We’re competing with electronics and defense for the same constituents. Even sourcing alloying elements for advanced aluminum becomes a geopolitical and market-scale challenge.” The Critical Minerals Forum, a DARPA-funded initiative, was cited as a useful resource for mapping industrial needs against mineral availability. In response to supply chain pressures, both Elementum 3D and Amaero are increasingly focusing on domestic inputs. “There’s a clear hierarchy,” said Nuechterlein. “U.S.-produced materials are the first choice, North American second, across the Atlantic third. Pacific-sourced feedstocks are a last resort.” Amaero’s strategy has been to localize electrode production for its gas atomization lines. “We bet early on a domestic feedstock model,” Kline noted. “So far, that’s been the right move.” To support broader industry resilience, DiMarco pointed to federal investment initiatives like the Future Alloy Study & Testing Center (FAST) and the IMPACT programs. “These target casting and forging capability, which is key if we want to modernize with additive while retaining domestic capacity.” Metal Additive Manufacturing Metal: What’s Next? Elementum 3D formally announced the production availability of GRX-810 alloy under ISO 9001-compliant procedures. “We’re producing it in pretty good sizes,” said Nuechterlein, “If you need a few tons, we can get it to you.” Meanwhile, America Makes is weighing a new track focused on failures in AM qualification, rather than polished success stories. “We want to talk about what went wrong, what failed during qualification,” said Ben DiMarco. Audience questions during the closing session exposed the pressure on powder suppliers and OEMs alike to anticipate demand, handle powder responsibly, and ensure upstream compliance with an evolving tangle of sourcing mandates. On the topic of demand forecasting, Nuechterlein emphasized long-term relationships and application-specific clarity. “If they can’t tell me about the application, I have to discount the forecast,” he said. “I assign probabilities based on what they’ve bought before, and if they’ve followed through.” Speakers were reminded that critical mineral sourcing has moved from suggestion to statute, with new DoD clauses coming into force that prohibit tungsten and tantalum from non-allied nations. “Think right off the bat: am I getting this from a strategic partner?” said one questioner, pointing to Department of Energy and Interior lists that define eligible critical minerals and countries. Evan Butler-Jones of Equispheres confirmed that traceability has become a customer requirement. “Where are these alloying elements coming from? That’s part of every conversation we have,” he said. Australia’s inclusion in the U.S. industrial base has provided some relief, particularly for scandium. Butler-Jones and Nuechterlein also called attention to persistent knowledge gaps on powder handling. “The biggest risk to metal powders? Leaving the lid off,” said Nuechterlein. “Moisture gets in, it clumps, and that powder’s finished.” He added that powder specifications remain frequently mismatched to actual application needs. “We see specs that are just copies of something else… not because they’ve been validated, but because the requester didn’t know better. There’s an opportunity to reduce cost and improve performance by tying specs more closely to the actual use case.” To accelerate progress, Chris Prue of IperionX emphasized early customer education. “If you’re the only one using that powder, you’re narrowing your options,” he said. “We need to make customers smarter upfront, so they build with standard specs when possible.” The path forward for metal additive manufacturing is increasingly defined by collaboration, data transparency, and strategic sourcing. Whether it’s reducing powder waste through novel reprocessing, aligning specs to actual application needs, or investing in domestic feedstocks, the emphasis is shifting from isolated innovation to coordinated execution. With new material qualifications underway, government-backed reshoring mandates accelerating, and greater openness to lessons learned from failed projects, the industry is beginning to close the gap between AM’s technical promise and its commercial reality. As one panelist put it, the goal is no longer just to make additive work, it’s to make it work at scale, sustainably, and with strategic foresight. Ready to discover who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights. Featured image shows Jacob Nuechterlein, Greg Kline, Ben DiMarco and Chris Prue [L-R]. Photo by Michael Petch.

Fortify, a Boston-based manufacturer of radio frequency (RF) and microwave (MW) devices using a patented fabrication platform, has been awarded a U.S. Army contract to improve Command and Control (C2) systems through advanced 5G infrastructure. The project is backed by the Army’s Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center and involves collaboration with RTX, a defense company specializing in radar and communication systems, and the University of Notre Dame’s Microwave and Millimeter-wave Circuits and Systems Laboratory. The team will deliver a prototype GRadient-INdex (GRIN) lens antenna system tailored for 5G tactical networks. Fortify’s platform, which is based on high-precision dielectric manufacturing and may involve additive techniques, will be used to fabricate the antenna. Testing will be conducted by the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), which oversees technology solutions related to military communications and signal processing. The objective is to increase bandwidth and gain while minimizing latency, meeting strict Army performance requirements for mobile deployments. “This contract presents a significant opportunity for Fortify to demonstrate the disruptive potential of our GRIN lens technology,” said Karlo Delos Reyes, Chief Customer Officer and Co-Founder of Fortify. “By leveraging our expertise in dielectric lensing, we are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in tactical communications, ensuring more resilient and high-performance solutions for the warfighter.” A prototype GRIN lens structure developed in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame for use in tactical 5G antenna systems. Photo via Fortify. Fortify’s passive lensing system aims to replace current C2 architectures that rely on fixed, wired connections—an approach that restricts operational flexibility in high-stakes environments. The prototype is designed to be wireless, energy-efficient, and suitable for mobile applications, where traditional infrastructure is impractical. Passive dielectric lensing modifies signal paths without active electronics, which can reduce power demands and improve reliability under combat conditions. Researchers Dr. Patrick Fay and Dr. Jonathan Chisum of the University of Notre Dame are supporting the antenna design and testing phase. Both have prior Department of Defense research experience and previously collaborated with Fortify on defense-related programs. Their academic lab specializes in RF component design, millimeter-wave systems, and integrated circuit modeling. The partnership leverages Notre Dame’s domain expertise alongside Fortify’s proprietary platform to accelerate the development timeline. Josh Martin, CEO and Co-Founder of Fortify, emphasized the strategic significance of the collaboration. “We’re thrilled to be working alongside Notre Dame and RTX to bring next-generation tactical communication systems to life,” he said. “This effort reinforces our commitment to supporting the warfighter with technology that enhances both mission effectiveness and survivability.” MQ-9 Reaper UAV – an unmanned drone used by the US Military. Photo via Department of Defense. Defense Manufacturing Investments The U.S. Department of Defense has steadily increased investments in additive manufacturing and materials research to enhance military readiness and autonomy. In March 2025, Supernova Industries Corp, an advanced manufacturing company based in Austin, Texas, secured a $2 million subcontract from the American Center for Manufacturing & Innovation (ACMI) to develop energetic materials using its proprietary Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) process. The company’s method enables the use of high-viscosity polymers to produce dense components for defense applications such as rocket motors and explosives—areas where traditional 3D printing methods fall short. The award was issued through the DoD’s MCEIP Pathfinders initiative and reflects a growing emphasis on adopting new fabrication platforms capable of meeting strict performance and safety requirements for national defense systems. Parallel efforts have focused on securing domestic sources of strategic metals. In early 2025, IperionX, a U.S. materials firm, was awarded up to $47.1 million by the DoD to develop a vertically integrated titanium supply chain. The initiative aims to reduce American dependence on foreign-controlled sources of titanium, currently dominated by China, Japan, and Russia. Funding from the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program supports both the Titan Critical Minerals Project in Tennessee and a titanium manufacturing campus in Virginia. IperionX’s proprietary processes—HAMR™ and HSPT™—offer a domestic pathway for producing cost-effective titanium components with defense-grade performance.  IperionX’s Titanium Manufacturing Campus in Virginia. Photo via IperionX. Ready to discover who won the 20243D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights. Featured image showcase a prototype GRIN lens structure developed in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame. Photo via Fortify. Anyer Tenorio Lara Anyer Tenorio Lara is an emerging tech journalist passionate about uncovering the latest advances in technology and innovation. With a sharp eye for detail and a talent for storytelling, Anyer has quickly made a name for himself in the tech community. Anyer's articles aim to make complex subjects accessible and engaging for a broad audience. In addition to his writing, Anyer enjoys participating in industry events and discussions, eager to learn and share knowledge in the dynamic world of technology.

Tech Robotic and drone tech make fruit picking and handling easier How drones and robotics are changing farming and what it means for workers Published April 23, 2025 6:00am EDT close 'CyberGuy': Robotic and drone tech make fruit picking and handling easier Tech expert Kurt Knutsson discusses how robots and drones are revolutionizing fruit farming with faster picking and smarter handling. Farming is undergoing a remarkable transformation thanks to cutting-edge technologies reshaping how fruit is picked and handled. While autonomous drones like Tevel’s Flying Robots are already harvesting fruit globally, innovations like UC San Diego’s GRIP-tape gripper represent the next frontier in gentle produce handling. Together, these advancements promise to make fruit production more efficient and precise, though one is a proven solution and the other is a glimpse into farming’s future.STAY PROTECTED & INFORMED! GET SECURITY ALERTS & EXPERT TECH TIPS – SIGN UP FOR KURT’S ‘THE CYBERGUY REPORT’ NOW Flying autonomous robot drone (Tevel) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Flying robots bring precision and efficiency to harvestingTevel’s Flying Autonomous Robots (FARs) are redefining fruit harvesting by combining artificial intelligence with advanced computer vision. These drones navigate through orchards, identifying and picking only the fruit that has reached peak ripeness. Their ability to maneuver carefully around branches allows them to harvest without bruising or harming the trees. Unlike human pickers, these drones can operate continuously, working day and night to get the job done faster and more consistently.Farmers benefit from detailed, real-time information about the harvest, including the size, color and ripeness of each fruit, all accessible through a mobile app. This data helps optimize harvesting schedules and reduce waste. FARs have already been deployed in orchards across the United States, Italy, Chile and Israel, where they have helped reduce labor costs by up to 30% while improving harvest accuracy. Multiple drones work together from a mobile platform, covering large orchard areas efficiently.Beyond picking, these robots also detect diseases and track the location of each fruit bin, providing farmers with valuable insights to manage their crops better. Flying autonomous robot drone (Tevel) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)GRIP-tape: A soft, adaptive touch for handling fruitWhile Tevel’s drones tackle harvesting, UC San Diego’s GRIP-tape gripper remains in the experimental stage as a solution for post-harvest handling. Inspired by steel measuring tapes, this prototype uses layered "fingers" to grasp delicate fruits gently. Early tests show promise in handling objects like lemons and tomatoes without damage, but it has yet to be widely adopted in farming.The gripper’s motorized reels allow its tape-based fingers to extend, rotate and convey items like a conveyor belt. Researchers highlight its low cost and safety around humans, but further development is needed to integrate it into commercial packing lines or harvesters. GRIP-tape gripper (UC San Diego) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)The future of farming: Proven and emerging techTevel’s drones are already transforming orchards, while the GRIP-tape gripper offers a vision of how delicate produce handling could evolve. The combination of real-world automation and experimental robotics highlights both the immediate benefits and long-term potential of agritech innovation. GRIP-tape gripper (UC San Diego) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Kurt’s key takeawaysAs we watch technology take on more roles in farming, it’s clear that drones like Tevel’s are already making a real difference in how fruit gets harvested. Meanwhile, concepts like the GRIP-tape gripper show us what might be just around the corner, a gentler, smarter way to handle delicate produce. There’s plenty of potential ahead, and it will be interesting to see how these technologies continue to evolve and work together to support farmers and the food we all enjoy.Are we willing to sacrifice human jobs for the sake of progress, or can we find a balance that protects both livelihoods and innovation? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact.For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most-asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.