MECHANICAL HARVESTING IS CRUCIAL FOR THE FRUIT INDUSTRY, ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE RISING COST OF FARM LABOR AND THE LABOR SHORTAGES. HOWEVER, MECHANICAL HARVESTING FOR TREE FRUITS IS NOTORIOUSLY DIFFICULT BECAUSE EXISTING METHODS SUCH AS TRUNK OR CANOPY SHAKING RESULT IN UNACCEPTABLE FRUIT DAMAGE. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRUITING WALL TYPE TREE ARCHITECTURES, WHERE ALMOST ALL FRUITS ARE VISIBLE AND EASILY ACCESSIBLE HAS ENABLED ROBOTIC HARVESTING TO EMERGE AS A POTENTIAL MECHANIZATION SOLUTION, FOR APPLES. HOWEVER, NOT ALL FRUIT TREES ARE OR CAN BE TRAINED AS FRUITING WALLS. THREE-DIMENSIONAL TREE ARCHITECTURES LIKE OPEN-CENTER, CENTRAL-LEADER AND TALL SPINDLE ARE EXTREMELY WIDESPREAD, AND RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT THEIR LARGE AND COMPLEX STRUCTURES SEVERELY LIMIT FRUIT VISIBILITY AND REACHABILITY. THIS LIMITATION REDUCES THE APPLICABILITY OF COMPUTER VISION-GUIDED ROBOTS. YET, OUR GROWERS URGENTLY NEED PRACTICAL, COST-EFFECTIVE MECHANICAL HARVESTING SOLUTIONS.THIS RESEARCH AIMS TO ADVANCE SHAKE-CATCH MECHANICAL HARVESTING APPROACHES FOR FRUIT TREES BY DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE FRUIT CAPTURE AND RETRIEVAL TECHNOLOGY. OUR APPROACH UTILIZES A LARGE NUMBER OF ADJACENT TELESCOPIC BOOMS THAT CARRY SOFT, ACTUATED INFLATABLE CYLINDERS. AFTER INSERTION INTO THE CANOPY'S FRUIT-BEARING VOLUME, THE BOOMS OF A SINGLE LAYER FORM A SOFT 'CATCHING SURFACE' FOR FRUITS. MULTIPLE BOOM LAYERS, AT DIFFERENT HEIGHTS, WILL BE INSERTED, AND WILL COLLECTIVELY ESTABLISH A MULTI-LEVEL FRUIT CATCHING AND RETRIEVAL (MFCR) SYSTEM FOR FRUITS DETACHED BY TRUNK SHAKING. INSTEAD OF EXPENSIVE VISION-GUIDED ROBOT ARMS, A LARGE NUMBER OF LOW-COST, SIMPLE ACTUATORS (BOOMS AND TUBES) ARE USED TO CAPTURE AND RETRIEVE FRUITS. KEY FINDINGS WILL BE SHARED WITH GROWERS, INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC USING WELL-ESTABLISHED CHANNELS AVAILABLE TO OUR TEAM.