Agricultural Harvesting Robot Concept Design and System Components: A Review

Abstract

Developing different robotic platforms for farm operations is vital to addressing the increasing world population. A harvesting robot significantly increases a farm’s productivity while farmers focus on other relevant farm operations. From the literature, it could be summarized that the design concepts of the harvesting mechanisms were categorized as grasping and cutting, vacuum suction plucking systems, twisting and plucking mechanisms, and shaking and catching. Meanwhile, robotic system components include the mobile platform, manipulators, and end effectors, sensing and localization, and path planning and navigation. The robotic system must be cost-effective and safe. The findings of this research could contribute to the design process of developing a harvesting robot or developing a harvesting module that can be retrofitted to a commercially available mobile platform. This paper provides an overview of the most recent harvesting robots’ different concept designs and system components. In particular, this paper will highlight different agricultural ground mobile platforms and their associated mechanical design, principles, challenges, and limitations to characterize the crop environment relevant to robotic harvesting and to formulate directions for future research and development for cotton harvesting platforms.

Application of Machine Vision Techniques in Low-Cost Devices to Improve Efficiency in Precision Farming

“…Technological innovation in this process is pivotal for improving agricultural productivity, soil management, climate resilience, and environmental remediation [12]. Integrating complex data acquisition systems, processing algorithms, and control systems to develop automated harvesting platforms can address these challenges [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Moreover, high-resolution sensors and high-end computers can lead to expensive hardware expenses.…”

Theoretical Study of the Motion of a Cut Sugar Beet Tops Particle along the Inner Surface of the Conveying and Unloading System of a Topping Machine

“…Due to the fragility of sugar beets and the stringent requirements for the quality of the final product, harvesting is a crucial operation [8][9][10]. Efficient and high-quality harvesting, using specialized machines such as multi-row self-propelled harvesters, is mandatory [11][12][13][14]. Nowadays, some modern harvesters have the possibility of installing adaptive devices based on computer vision systems, by which a significant amount of losses during the harvesting process can be reduced, thanks to, for instance, a digital two-dimensional recording system combined with a convolutional neural network (CNN) for detecting defects in harvested sugar beets [15,16].…”

A Study of an Agricultural Indoor Robot for Harvesting Edible Bird Nests in Vietnam

“…Meanwhile, reference [10] chooses a high-speed mechanical rolling blade to cut off the pumpkin's stem. Four-wheel vehicles are dominant in developing a harvesting robot [11] because of their light weight and flexibility for dampish conditions. Likewise, track vehicles are less sensitive to the ground environment, so it can work well in swampy and wet ground quality [12].…”