Development and field evaluation of a strawberry harvesting robot with a cable-driven gripper

Xiong, Ya; Cheng, Peng; Grimstad, Lars; From, Pål Johan; Isler, Volkan

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2019.01.009

Cited by 187 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In the United Kingdom, for example, the need is especially significant in the soft fruit sector, which uses 29,000 seasonal pickers to generate over 160,000 tons of fruit every year (British summer fruits seasonal labor report, 2017). In California, the cost of manual harvesting cost could be as much as 60% of production costs for fresh market strawberries (Anjom, Vougioukas, & Slaughter, ), which concurs with research conducted in Norway (Xiong et al, ). These dual labor challenges of shortages and high costs are, therefore, advancing developments in the automation of fruit harvesting operations.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…Contact grasping grippers are also common to see, such as the three‐finger clamps with force‐limit function (Dimeas et al, ) and two or more fingers with rotational motion to break peduncles (Yamamoto et al, ; OCTINION Ltd.). The scissor‐like gripper requires more advanced vision system to detect the peduncle position and might unintentionally cut surrounding plants in clusters (Hayashi et al, ; Xiong et al, ). The grasping contact type grippers might easily bruise fragile strawberries (Hayashi et al, ).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2017, we developed the first version of a strawberry‐harvesting robot and implemented a set of field experiments for performance evaluation (Xiong et al, ). As shown in Figure a, the robot hardware comprised four modules: (a) a cable‐driven gripper attached to (b) a Mitsubishi five‐degrees‐of‐freedom (5‐DOF) serial arm, mounted on (c) the Thorvald platform (Grimstad et al, ) and (d) a stationary RGB‐D camera facing one side of table‐top grown strawberries.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2016, according to market research company IndexBox, the global strawberry market amounted to 9.2 million tons, increasing by 5% against the previous year. Strawberry production is heavily reliant on human labor, especially for harvesting (Xiong, Peng, Grimstad, From, & Isler, ). It was reported that 25% of all working hours in Japan are consumed by harvesting operations (Yamamoto, Hayashi, Yoshida, & Kobayashi, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Noncontact picking might be an acceptable solution to avoid damage. Second, strawberries are small in size and tend to grow in clusters, which makes it difficult to identify and pick individual strawberries (Xiong et al, ; Yamamoto et al, ). Picking in clusters with dense obstacles is one of the main challenges for strawberry harvesting (Xiong et al, ; Yamamoto et al, ) as well as for many other crop harvesting systems, such as tomato harvesting (Yaguchi, Nagahama, Hasegawa, & Inaba, ) and sweet pepper robot (Bac et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An autonomous strawberry‐harvesting robot: Design, development, integration, and field evaluation

Xiong

Grimstad

et al. 2019

Journal of Field Robotics

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268

133

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This paper presents an autonomous robot capable of picking strawberries continuously in polytunnels. Robotic harvesting in cluttered and unstructured environment remains a challenge. A novel obstacle‐separation algorithm was proposed to enable the harvesting system to pick strawberries that are located in clusters. The algorithm uses the gripper to push aside surrounding leaves, strawberries, and other obstacles. We present the theoretical method to generate pushing paths based on the surrounding obstacles. In addition to manipulation, an improved vision system is more resilient to lighting variations, which was developed based on the modeling of color against light intensity. Further, a low‐cost dual‐arm system was developed with an optimized harvesting sequence that increases its efficiency and minimizes the risk of collision. Improvements were also made to the existing gripper to enable the robot to pick directly into a market punnet, thereby eliminating the need for repacking. During tests on a strawberry farm, the robots first‐attempt success rate for picking partially surrounded or isolated strawberries ranged from 50% to 97.1%, depending on the growth situations. Upon an additional attempt, the pick success rate increased to a range of 75–100%. In the field tests, the system was not able to pick a target that was entirely surrounded by obstacles. This failure was attributed to limitations in the vision system as well as insufficient dexterity in the grippers. However, the picking speed improved upon previous systems, taking just 6.1 s for manipulation operation in the one‐arm mode and 4.6 s in the two‐arm mode.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

An autonomous strawberry‐harvesting robot: Design, development, integration, and field evaluation

Xiong

Grimstad

et al. 2019

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

268

133

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Berry beverages: From bioactives to antidiabetes properties and beverage processing technology

Yin,

Niu,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Food Frontiers

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Beverages with nutritional functional properties constitute one of the fastest‐growing segments in the food industry. Beverages produced with berries as raw materials, owing to their richness in various beneficial substances (such as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive phytochemicals), have emerged as integral components of nutritional functional beverages. In this review, we summarize the bioactive polyphenols present in berry beverages and discuss the potential properties of berries from an antidiabetic perspective. The application and impact of new technologies in the processing and production of berry beverages are also explored. Additionally, the review addresses the challenges and prospects faced by industrial development in berry beverage production. Our objective is to provide valuable information for food researchers and the berry beverage production industry, facilitating the production of highly nutritious drinks that appeal to consumers.

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Design and evaluation of a modular robotic plum harvesting system utilizing soft components

Brown

Sukkarieh

2020

Journal of Field Robotics

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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.

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Development and field evaluation of a strawberry harvesting robot with a cable-driven gripper

Cited by 187 publications

References 14 publications

An autonomous strawberry‐harvesting robot: Design, development, integration, and field evaluation

An autonomous strawberry‐harvesting robot: Design, development, integration, and field evaluation

Berry beverages: From bioactives to antidiabetes properties and beverage processing technology

Design and evaluation of a modular robotic plum harvesting system utilizing soft components

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