12th Robot Award Winners Announced

The Robot Award is a program that recognizes outstanding robots, components and software, advanced applications, research and development, and talent development initiatives to promote the advancement and wider use of robot technology in Japan. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries co-hosts the program with the Japan Machinery Federation, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and other relevant ministries and agencies.

Mizunigooru was developed to reduce farmers’ heavy workload by automating early-stage weeding, a major burden in pesticide-free and organic cultivation. It is expected to have a social impact by helping address agricultural labor shortages, reduce pesticide use, and expand organic farming.

Palletizy is expected to generate broader benefits in labor reduction, improved safety, and digital transformation by addressing the challenge faced by food factories and similar sites: “wanting to automate but being unable to.”

The 73 entries submitted during the application period for the 12th Robot Award were reviewed, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award was given to Mizunigooru, a paddy-field weeding robot made by Hatake Hotoke Co., Ltd. of Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture. The robot drives autonomously through paddy fields and removes weeds without pesticides by combining physical weeding, in which brushes scrape the paddy surface, with a method that stirs the water and mud to cloud the water and hinder photosynthesis in weeds. The 2025 model has an automatic navigation function using GNSS and enables highly repeatable work through field-specific driving settings. It has been deployed nationwide and has moved into the social implementation phase.

Palletizy, a compact collaborative palletizing robot made by Closer Inc. of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, received an Excellence Award in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food industries category. This packaged robot automates product stacking and is designed to deliver “simplicity, flexibility for diverse products, compact size, and affordability” together, enabling users to handle a wide variety of products and complex stacking tasks without specialized knowledge.

The award ceremony will be held on the main stage in East Hall 3 at Tokyo Big Sight, while the joint exhibition will take place at the 12th Robot Award joint exhibition booth in East Halls 1–3 (booth number F-03). Both events will be held at Smart Factory Japan 2026. The event is organized by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd.