The human labor required for tree crop harvesting is a major cost component in fruit production and is increasing. To address this, many existing research works have sought to demonstrate commercially viable robotic harvesting for tree crops, though successful commercial products resulting from these have been few and far between. Systems developed for specific crops such as sweet peppers or apples have shown promise, but the vast majority of cultivar types remain unaddressed, and developing a specific system for each one is inefficient. In this study, an easily modifiable development platform for robotic fruit harvesting is presented, this can be used to test specific design choices on different fruit and growing conditions. The system is evaluated in a commercial plum orchard, with no crop modifications. Both a hard and soft gripper are trialed, along with three object detector approaches and two picking motions. Some existing techniques are found to be counterproductive for plums, while soft robotics and persistent target tracking significantly improve performance. The best harvest success rate of 42%, was observed when using the soft gripper with complex motion. This is lower than expected based on prior testing with apples and indicates the difficulty in moving to new fruit types. Unique challenges specific to the plum type and growing style are examined in the context of system module design choices.

中文翻译：

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利用软组件的模块化机器人李子收割系统的设计和评估

收获树木所需的人工是水果生产中的主要成本组成部分，并且正在增加。为了解决这个问题，许多现有的研究工作都试图证明商业上可行的树木收割机器人的收获，尽管从中获得的成功的商业产品很少而且相差甚远。为诸如甜椒或苹果之类的特定农作物开发的系统显示出了希望，但绝大多数品种类型仍未解决，为每种作物开发特定系统效率低下。在这项研究中，提出了一个易于修改的机器人水果收获开发平台，该平台可用于测试针对不同水果和生长条件的特定设计选择。该系统在商业李子园中进行了评估，没有改变农作物。硬质和软质抓爪都经过试验，以及三个物体检测器方法和两个拾取动作。发现一些现有的技术对李子不利，而软机器人技术和持久的目标跟踪可以显着提高性能。使用带有复杂运动的软爪时，观察到最佳收获成功率为42％。这低于先前对苹果进行的测试所预期的水平，这表明在过渡到新的水果类型方面存在困难。在系统模块设计选择的背景下，研究了针对李子类型和生长方式的独特挑战。使用带有复杂运动的软爪时，观察到了这种情况。这低于先前对苹果进行的测试所预期的水平，这表明在过渡到新的水果类型方面存在困难。在系统模块设计选择的背景下，研究了针对李子类型和生长方式的独特挑战。使用带有复杂运动的软爪时，观察到了这种情况。这低于先前对苹果进行的测试所预期的水平，这表明在过渡到新的水果类型方面存在困难。在系统模块设计选择的背景下，研究了针对李子类型和生长方式的独特挑战。