LUCAi post-harvest sorting and grading technology


Experience unparalleled precision in your packhouse with deep learning for apples, blueberries, cherries, citrus, stonefruit and kiwifruit.

Enjoy total pack-out Control with the only operator-led severity tuning for granular grading.

  • Industry-Exclusive Severity Tuning: Don’t settle for "Pass/Fail." Define precise boundaries for every grade to ensure fruit which is borderline between grades is packed into the best grade to match your customers’ requirements.
  • Evolving Defect Intelligence: Access a living library updated with millions of images. LUCAi™ adapts to changing seasonal conditions and region-specific defects that static systems miss.
  • 0.5% More Utilization = $800k/Season: Small gains are massive at scale. Capturing just 0.5% more utilization adds 120 boxes per shift, generating up to $800,000 in extra revenue per season.
  • Slash Labor Costs: Automate manual sorting and reallocate your top talent from software management to high-value line oversight.
  • Proven at Scale: 1,600+ lanes installed globally.

LUCAiknows the difference

What do we mean when we say, "LUCAi™ knows the difference"?

Leaps in accuracy for even difficult-to-classify defects happen because
LUCAi™ classifies by looking at the entire piece of fruit.

By inspecting the whole fruit and understanding the entire fruit in context, LUCAi™ knows the difference between two similar defects and applies the correct classification.

  • LUCAi™ looks at the entire piece of fruit to make a more accurate classification of the defect. This piece of fruit was correctly classified as Thrip.
    Traditional mapping looks at a few pixels in isolation. This piece of fruit should have been classified as Thrip. However, it was incorrectly classified as Clipper Cut.

    How LUCAi™ achieves 99%+ detection for defects

    Traditional grading using machine learning works by looking at different parts of the fruit – a few pixels at a time – and making a prediction based on its local training set. It does not see the whole fruit simply looking locally at whether areas of pixels are good or bad, rot or not rot.

    LUCAi™ is different from other types of machine learning: it’s a full deep learning classification model. In short, LUCAi™ models mimic the visual cortex of the human brain, which is the area of the cerebral cortex that makes sense of what your eyes “see”.  

    These characteristics makes it the ideal solution to scan and recognize an image and put together all the individual characteristics the optical system “sees” before making a smart prediction about the entire piece of fruit.

    Then, LUCAi™ will assign:

  • Defect class/category: defect detected
  • Confidence: certainty that an image belongs to the assigned category
  • Severity rating: measurement of 0-100 of how ‘bad’ the defect is based on the size and appearance of the defect. This allows your operator to stay in control of the final sort.
  • About LUCAi™

    • Deep learning model (most advanced artificial intelligence available on market)
    • Available for apples, blueberries, cherries, citrus, stonefruit and kiwifruit.
    • Assigns unique severity rating for classifications (for large fruit and cherries)
    • Processes up to 40,000 images per second
    • Trained on over 20 seasons of in-house fruit images
    • Available with Spectrim, KAT0260, and InVision
      2 
      optical grading systems
    • 3500+ LUCAi™ lanes sold globally as of 2025
    • First deep learning model for fresh fruit on the market (launched 2018)

     

    Current LUCAi™ model availability

    Stem-related imperfections? No problem

    Superior grading accuracy for apples? Look no further. LUCAi™ reduces up to 99% of total apple stem defects with true precision. It accurately detecs even the most challenging defects, such as stem splits and punctures. And it works across varieties.

    LUCAi™ optical grading systems

    Why choose LUCAi™?

    Higher performance

    With pixel-detail nuances and richer information data, LUCAi™ makes smarter decisions in areas that otherwise take additional work to get right (e.g., defects in the stem bowls of apples, near the stems of citrus, packman and stem/nose cracks on cherries, dehydration for blueberries).

    Simplicity for operators

    LUCAi™ not only arrives in your packhouse with increased performance, but its capabilities allow for a simple set-up. Because TOMRA has taken the effort to pre-train LUCAi™ it makes smarter predictions immediately, it only requires simple instructions from the operator. Operators learn to use LUCAi™ in hours and remain in control of your final sort parameters.

    Greater adaptability and accuracy

    LUCAi™ uses a multi-layer artificial neural network, which extracts and summarizes the key information in the image. Those layers give it the accuracy to identify any defects because it’s capable of handling contextual data, comparing it, and seeing it in the wider context (defect severity).

    Surpasses human sorting

    With the help of a TOMRA optical grading system, LUCAi™ uses extremely fine differentiation that can outperform even the most seasoned human grader.

    LUCAi™ knows the difference... for stem splits

    Freshco, a leading New Zealand fruit and vegetable grower and exporter, shares the benefits they've experienced with the implementation of the Spectrim LUCAi™ upgrade package on their apple line. Spectrim with LUCAi™ includes new ‘plug-and-play’ Deep Learning models, pre-trained by vast datasets, that can precisely detect and classify even the trickiest apple defects, such as splits and punctures across multiple varieties.

    "We deal with a lot of Royal Gala and Breeze, and the tend to have a lot of splits. This year, after a storm, the fruit seemed to have a lot more splits. AI made it really, really easy to control that. Production was not slowed down at all like in the past, which means through put stayed at a good place within the shed." - Robin Mudgeway.

     

    LUCAi™ for Apples
    LUCAi™ for Cherries

    LUCAi™ knows the difference...for freshwater cracks

    Prima Frutta are based in Linden, California and pack apples, cherries and walnuts with their TOMRA sorting and grading solutions. The family-owned company is passionate about delivering quality to their customers and achieve this through their investment in technology.

    "We're in the process of teaching it powdery mildew defects, insect bites, freshwater cracks. These things were very difficult to pick up our traditional mapping systems. LUCAi™ has seemed to be able to get these types of specialized defects more effectively."

    Learn more about artificial intelligence at TOMRA Food

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