Introduction
China’s Shandong province ranks as one of the country’s core apple production regions.
Notably, most of its orchards sit across hilly and mountainous terrain with fragmented, sloped plots.
For this reason, traditional orchard management in the area relies heavily on manual labor. This leads to high operating costs, low efficiency, and slow progress in mechanized upgrading.
The Fengyun Agricultural Mechanization Program
To address these industry gaps, the Shandong Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched the “Fengyun” Agricultural Mechanization Promotion Program. Specifically, the initiative focuses on building replicable, scalable demonstration scenarios for smart farm equipment in specialty crop sectors.
Yantai, a key apple-growing city in eastern Shandong, is a priority area for this mechanization upgrade effort. Its complex hilly landscape makes standard farm machinery difficult to deploy, creating demand for terrain-adapted smart solutions.
Field Demonstration Event Overview
As an official participant in the Fengyun Program, Lanjiang Tech recently hosted a live testing and demonstration event. The activity took place at Tongmao Apple Orchard in Zhaoyuan, a county-level city under Yantai.
The event centered on the company’s self-developed ground-based intelligent orchard robots.
In addition, it paired the robots with low-altitude crop protection equipment to showcase a collaborative workflow.
Together, these tools form an integrated air-ground orchard management system built for hilly growing environments. This combined model aims to resolve core pain points in apple production mechanization across the region.
Core Equipment & Working Capabilities
The star of the demonstration was Lanjiang Tech’s tracked intelligent orchard robot.
Thanks to its compact tracked chassis, the unit can move flexibly through narrow tree rows on uneven, sloped ground.
It handles multiple fine orchard tasks including precision pest control spraying, field mowing, and material transport. For larger-scale coverage, low-altitude equipment supports wide-area spraying and aerial crop inspection.
Furthermore, a central smart management platform coordinates both ground and aerial units for synchronized operation. This air-ground complementarity helps solve common hilly orchard issues, such as poor machinery access, uneven application, and low manual output.
On-Site Demonstration & Industry Exchange
On-site technical teams ran full demonstrations of the robot’s core functions. These included autonomous navigation, intelligent obstacle avoidance, and precision variable-rate spraying.
The team also explained equipment operation protocols and integrated machinery-agronomy solutions in detail. Attendees included agricultural authority staff, large-scale orchard operators, and agricultural service providers.
During the event, participants held in-depth discussions about practical on-farm use cases. Key topics included equipment adaptability for hilly orchards, cost and efficiency benefits, and large-scale adoption pathways.
Technical Refinement & Future Plans
Lanjiang Tech has continuously optimized its robot’s terrain passability and intelligent control system for northern Chinese hilly orchards. Notably, this field trial helps validate real-world performance, collect operating data, and refine dedicated solutions for mountainous fruit growing.
Moving forward, the company will continue using the Fengyun Program’s demonstration platform. It will deepen government-enterprise collaboration to speed up the commercial rollout of its smart orchard machinery.
Ultimately, these efforts aim to fill mechanization gaps for specialty fruit crops in Shandong. They also support the long-term upgrading of the region’s fruit industry toward smarter, more efficient production.
