[uxhack]

In Spain and in Portugal grape harvesting machines are common. They are also used for harvesting olives. The vines have to be planted in hedges. The machines straddle the hedges and gently shake the tree with rubber flippers. The vines have to be ripped out when they become to brittle.

[rripken]

We have mechanical harvesters in California but I haven't seen any that are gentle or use rubber flippers. Mechanical harvesters typically shake the trees/trunks a small amount but quite quickly. For grapes the shaking might move the top of the vine a foot or so at several hertz. The shaking is strong enough that most grapes are plucked off the stem merely because of the weight of the berry and the whip-like motion of the shaking. The newer style bow rod machines use multiple UHMW rods bent into a question mark like shape. A large number of materials were tried but UHMW is the strongest material that could be found for the application. If adamantium or vibranium could be sourced I'm sure it would be used.