A B.C.-based startup that makes artificial intelligence (AI)-run mushroom harvesting robots says a recent $40-million investment will help the company remain at the cutting edge of autonomous agricultural technology, at a time when the industry is facing widespread labour shortages.

4AG (pronounced "forage") Robotics is based in the rural lakeside city of Salmon Arm, between Vancouver and Calgary, on the outskirts of the Rocky Mountains.

There, it creates robots that use AI-run cameras and suction cups to pluck, trim and pack commercially grown button mushrooms.

Sixteen of the autonomous robots are already working for 24-hours a day — without the need for a break — in Canada, the U.S., Ireland, the Netherlands and Australia. With a recent injection of $40 million in capital venture fund

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