Robotics experts at the University of Essex are developing a robot to replace human strawberry pickers.

It is estimated that 20 per cent of soft fruits are not being picked across the country because farms are struggling to find workers due to Brexit.

Experts believe that this will worsen further when Britain leaves the EU, which has led to farms looking for alternate solutions to harvest crops.

But scientists say that building a machine that imitates human strawberry pickers is difficult due to their different shapes and sizes.

Dr Vishuu Mohan a computer science and engineering lecturer who is leading the project, said: "The challenge is that no two berries are the same - they come in different shapes, sizes, order of ripeness and many are hidden in the foliage.

"Also the environment keeps changing constantly - sunny, windy, rainy - in contrast to a typical industrial environment.

"Hence, dextrous manipulation in unstructured environments is a big challenge for robotics today."

A prototype of the robot is expected to be ready within a few months and it is expected to be able to pick low hanging strawberries.

The demand for strawberries has skyrocketed over the last 22 years with Britons consuming 101,000 tonnes yearly- up from 67,000 in 1996.