Like all robotics, a solution needs someone willing to develop expert domain knowledge, not a generalist software engineer with an enthusiasm for the latest out-of-the box AI techniques. And part of that expert domain knowledge is almost certainly going to be knowing to start with something easier than strawberries. My best guess is apples, but I'm not that expert.
But, since you provided a thoughtful analysis of why strawberries are hard, here are some thoughts on the problems you mentioned (to be clear, I don't think I'm solving strawberry picking in a random HN comment, I just thought it was a thought-provoking problem to discuss):
> If you apply too much pressure, it will mulch
My robotics knowledge is super out of date, but AFAIK applying a reasonable amount of pressure is stupid hard. Can you avoid ever touching the strawberry and just always grab it by the cut stem?
> The second tricky bit is that you want to pick strawberries with the right amount of stem remaining
Always grab too much stem, then trim it down on the way to the bin, so you can do this on a known background instead of the middle of a green mess. The trimming cutter may even be designed to round down the stem.
> This is again a very "feel" based movement, too little movement and you miss the berry, too much and you damage the plant.
Can you get away with combing the entire plant to the side, or is the plant fragile too? Failing that, a robot can stick its eyes right in there and scan every strawberry-sized voxel of space.
But, since you provided a thoughtful analysis of why strawberries are hard, here are some thoughts on the problems you mentioned (to be clear, I don't think I'm solving strawberry picking in a random HN comment, I just thought it was a thought-provoking problem to discuss):
> If you apply too much pressure, it will mulch
My robotics knowledge is super out of date, but AFAIK applying a reasonable amount of pressure is stupid hard. Can you avoid ever touching the strawberry and just always grab it by the cut stem?
> The second tricky bit is that you want to pick strawberries with the right amount of stem remaining
Always grab too much stem, then trim it down on the way to the bin, so you can do this on a known background instead of the middle of a green mess. The trimming cutter may even be designed to round down the stem.
> This is again a very "feel" based movement, too little movement and you miss the berry, too much and you damage the plant.
Can you get away with combing the entire plant to the side, or is the plant fragile too? Failing that, a robot can stick its eyes right in there and scan every strawberry-sized voxel of space.