Development of a Multi-Task Robotic Transplanting Workcell for Greenhouse Seedlings

A multi-task robotic transplanting workcell for greenhouse seedlings was developed and evaluated. The workcell mainly consists of a transplanting system, two conveyors, a filling unit, and a control system. The transplanting system having multi-grippers was designed to automatically pick-up and plant whole rows of seedlings. The conveyors were designed with the pallet-type double-row chain transmission system which moves the plug trays and pots to the predefined working space of the multi-grippers. The filling unit was designed for automatically filling the growing pots with soil and dibbling holes prior to planting seedlings. The control system coordinates the functionality of the aforementioned function units for flexible automation using a programmable logic controller (PLC). Consequently, a prototype of the multi-task robotic transplanting workcell was constructed. The system was made to undergo dynamic accuracy test and to evaluate the ability of the multi-grippers to meet its design and performance requirements. The results of the performance test under local seedling production conditions showed that the overall success ratio in transplanting operation was up to 90% at the efficiency of 960 plants/h/gripper. Keywords: Greenhouse, Multi-task, Seedlings, Transplanting.