In the late 1970s early 80s I was a freelance filmmaker at the Central Office of Information - the UK Government's advertising department. We made TWIBs - This Week In Britain. Short stories of what was happening in the UK for broadcast on foreign, mainly Commonwealth, networks. Here is one - an engineer and an apple producer's solution to simulate the human hand to gently pick apples off trees without out bruising! The normal method was shaking the tree to make them fall or lots of fruit-pickers with ladders.
I don't think this machine caught on! But, perhaps with the present lack of worker crisis, it should be tried again. Yer never know.