Flying robots picking fake fruits are a product designed by an Israeli start-up

Video. Watch: Flying robots are picking fruit in Israel

Meet the fruit pickers of tomorrow. An Israeli start-up is replacing farmhands with flying robots who do the picking themselves. It's a futuristic sight: an orchard bursting with fake fruit and the buzz of flying robots rather than birdsong filling the air.

Meet the fruit pickers of tomorrow. An Israeli start-up is replacing farmhands with flying robots who do the picking themselves. It's a futuristic sight: an orchard bursting with fake fruit and the buzz of flying robots rather than birdsong filling the air.

The robots fly around and pick fruit straight off the trees, depositing them in a bin. That makes life easier for farmers, may cut food prices and the work more cost-effective, according to Israeli start-up Tevel.

The robots are already paired with farmers in orchards in Italy and the US.

"Artificial Intelligence is definitely the future," says Amir Degani, associate professor, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

But these robots won't replace all humans just yet.

"I think it's not in the near future, where aero-robots are going to be robust enough, but it is a great idea that it's scalable, and if you can make the robots robust and cheap then you can definitely do some of the picking using these aero-robots," Degani says.

Watch the video in the player above.