Study the Parametric Effect of Pulling Pattern on Cherry Tomato Harvesting Using RSM-BBD Techniques

Detachment of fruit from the plants with separation force is important in robotic harvesting. Compared with twisting pattern and bending pattern, the pulling pattern for cherry tomato harvesting is more simple, more flexible, and easier to implement in robotic harvesting. It was found that the detachment force is closely related to the location of the fruit separation. However, in the pulling pattern, analysis of the effect of harvesting parameters of cherry tomatoes at the calyx/fruit joint has still not been carried out in depth. In this paper, the goal of this research was to investigate the effect of different harvesting parameters on the minimal detachment force of cherry tomatoes at the calyx/fruit joint. Experiments were designed according to response surface methodology Box–Behnken design by maintaining three levels of three process parameters—grasping angle, horizontal angle, and pitching angle. Results showed that the pitching angle is the most important parameter, and the grasping angle has little effect on the detachment force, and the detachment force was found within the range of 0.58 N to 2.46 N. Results also revealed that the minimum separation force of the cherry tomato harvesting at the calyx/fruit joint was obtained by the optimum conditions of the grasping angle of 68°, the horizontal angle of 135° and the pitching angle of 0°. Moreover, desirability function has also been used to optimize the angle parameters. The confirmation experiments validate the reliability and capability of the developed model.

A Study on the Feasibility of Robotic Harvesting for Chile Pepper

This paper presents a study on the robotic harvesting of New Mexico type chile pepper, in a laboratory setting, using a five degrees of freedom (DoF) serial manipulator. The end-effector of the manipulator, a scissor-type cutting mechanism, was devised and experimentally tested in a lab setup which cuts the chile stem to detach the fruit. Through a MATLAB™-based program, the location of the chile pepper is estimated in the robot’s reference frame, using Intel RealSense Depth Camera. The accuracy of the 3D location estimation system matches the maximum accuracy claimed by the manufacturer of the hardware, with a maximum error to be in Y-axis, which is 5.7 mm. The forward and inverse kinematics are developed, and the reachable and dexterous workspaces of the robot are studied. An application-based path planning algorithm is developed to minimize the travel for a specified harvesting task. The robotic harvesting system was able to cut the chile pepper from the plant based on 3D location estimated by MATLAB™ program. On the basis of harvesting operation, on 77 chile peppers, the following harvesting indicators were achieved: localization success rate of 37.7%, detachment success rate of 65.5%, harvest success rate of 24.7%, damage rate of 6.9%, and cycle time of 7 s.

Soft Grippers for Automatic Crop Harvesting: A Review

Agriculture 4.0 is transforming farming livelihoods thanks to the development and adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics, traditionally used in other productive sectors. Soft robotics and soft grippers in particular are promising approaches to lead to new solutions in this field due to the need to meet hygiene and manipulation requirements in unstructured environments and in operation with delicate products. This review aims to provide an in-depth look at soft end-effectors for agricultural applications, with a special emphasis on robotic harvesting. To that end, the current state of automatic picking tasks for several crops is analysed, identifying which of them lack automatic solutions, and which methods are commonly used based on the botanical characteristics of the fruits. The latest advances in the design and implementation of soft grippers are also presented and discussed, studying the properties of their materials, their manufacturing processes, the gripping technologies and the proposed control methods. Finally, the challenges that have to be overcome to boost its definitive implementation in the real world are highlighted. Therefore, this review intends to serve as a guide for those researchers working in the field of soft robotics for Agriculture 4.0, and more specifically, in the design of soft grippers for fruit harvesting robots.

Advances in soilless culture strawberry production

The majority of strawberries produced in the world are grown in the open field, and only in the past 50 years has protected cropping become established as a commercially viable system. Soilless culture (hydroponics) is an important component of this form of intensive production because it enables the strawberry crop to be grown above the ground (table top system) which can provides an improved root environment, nutrition and irrigation and at the same time easier fruit harvesting. Solid media systems predominate over liquid based systems with peat and coir being the most popular media. Future production appears to be increasingly towards year round production by the improved control of the plant environment, combined with reducing harvesting costs by robotic harvesting.