Abstract
Fruit and vegetable harvesting robots have been widely studied and developed in recent years. However, the usage of existing end-effectors remains a challenge because they cannot be extended to other fruits and vegetables. This study proposes a novel end-effector that can harvest a variety of fruits and vegetables without any additional and complex control. For efficient harvesting, an end-effector in which the cutting, suction and transporting modules were integrated was designed and the performance of each module was verified through lab and field experiments, ensuring a reduction in harvesting time and improved productivity, the goal of harvest automation. Field experiments were conducted for a total of five cases (− 30°, − 15°, 0°, 15° and 30°) for each entry angle in three places. A total of 160 cluster tomatoes were harvested, with a total success rate of 80.6% and a total harvesting time of 15.5 s. The success rates for each entry angle were 75.0%, 71.9%, 93.8%, 81.2% and 81.2% and the harvesting times were 20.2, 16.0, 13.5, 13.7 and 14.1 s, respectively. The results also open the possibility of designing a robust harvesting system for the proposed end-effector. This study also provides directions for future discussion through which harvesting robots and the utilization of robust harvesting systems can be improved.
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Funding
This paper has been supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (IPET) through the Smart Farm Innovation Technology Development Program, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) (421031-04).
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Park, Y., Seol, J., Pak, J. et al. A novel end-effector for a fruit and vegetable harvesting robot: mechanism and field experiment. Precision Agric 24, 948–970 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-022-09981-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-022-09981-5