When a field of soybeans is ready to harvest, speed is of the essence. But harvesting grinds to a halt every time the combine operator has to climb down out of the cab to manually check for quality—whole, un-split beans without stray husk material. Researchers from Kyoto University and University of Illinois recently developed a machine to automate the process, evaluating bean quality on the fly, so harvesting can go on uninterrupted.