Experimental and theoretical analysis of fruit plucking patterns for robotic tomato harvesting

Liu, Jizhan; Peng, Yun; Faheem, Muhammad

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2020.105330

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…1,2 Fruit harvesting with high success rate is one of the key techniques of robotic harvesting, which is not only related to the branch-stem characteristics and harvesting strategy, but also largely depends on the structure of the end-effector. 3,4 Xie et al found that the optimal combination of harvesting parameters with the minimum separation force of the cherry tomato harvesting at the calyx/fruit joint was obtained in the pulling pattern. However, due to the branch-stem characteristics, the actual separation force between fruit and plant was greater than the ideal separation force, which is easy to cause fruit harvesting failure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization and experimental study on structural parameters of bio-inspired tarsus compliant end-effector to reduce the risk of fruit sliding out from end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting

Xie

Kong

Wang

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:

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High success rate of fruit picking is part of key technologies for robotic cherry tomato harvesting, which is closely related to the structure of end-effector. In order to prevent the fruit slipping from the end-effector for a high success rate of fruit picking during picking process, this paper presents a compliant end-effector with bio-inspired tarsus compliant gripper inspired by the structure and mechanics of the tarsal chain in the Serica orientalis Motschulsky. An experimental study to confirm the effect of the key structural parameters of the compliant end-effector on the angle (ESGA) formed by the extended segment tarsomere of two bio-inspired tarsus compliant grippers. Experiments were designed according to response surface methodology - box Behnken design by maintaining three levels of four process parameters - length of the offset segment tarsomere (OSL), angle of the inclined segment tarsomere (ISA), thickness of the extended segment tarsomere (EST) and length of the extended segment tarsomere (ESL). Results showed that ISA is the most important parameter, and ESL has little effect on ESGA, and ESGA was found within the range of 4.2° to 17.5°. Results also revealed that the desired ESGA (12°) was obtained by the optimum conditions of OSL of 2.4 mm, ISA of 18 °, EST of 4.9 mm and ESL of 18 mm. Besides, the key structural parameters of the bio-inspired tarsus compliant end-effector are optimized by the expectation function. The reliability and feasibility of the constructed model are verified by validation experiments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization and experimental study on structural parameters of bio-inspired tarsus compliant end-effector to reduce the risk of fruit sliding out from end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting

Xie

Kong

Wang

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C:

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“…Compared with wine grapes which are harvested and transported in the form of berries, the harvest and post-harvest handling of fresh eating grapes must be completed in the form of clusters or bunches until they are put in the supermarket. In robotic handling of grape clusters during harvesting and post-harvesting operations, the "stem gripping" method (for single fruits) [5] is usually not used, but the main rachis is directly gripped and cut. The hanging grape cluster after cutting is transported towards a box, released and placed into a basket to complete on-site transportation (as shown in Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hanging force analysis for realizing low vibration of grape clusters during speedy robotic post-harvest handling

Faheem

Liu

Chang

et al. 2021

International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

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Mechanical damage induced by vibration during harvesting and post-harvest handling could decrease the quality, quantity, and shelf life of the fresh grape cluster. Usually, fresh grape clusters are harvested by gripping and cutting from the main rachis in the present robotic harvesting system, then transported towards the basket during post-harvest handling. However, serious cluster vibration and corresponding berry falling may occur during the robotic transportation of hanging grape clusters. Therefore, this study was designed to perform experimental and theoretical hanging force analysis to explore the vibration mechanism of hanging grape clusters during robotic transportation. A lead screw lathe with an attached linear actuator was used to investigate the effects of four different speeds (0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 m/s) with four acceleration levels (6, 8, 10, 12 m/s 2 ) on the vibration of the hanging grape cluster. By the experiments, the peak hanging force of the grape cluster at the start, constant speed, and stop phase of the actuator was recorded using a single axis force sensor, and the cluster's swing angle was measured with a digital camera. The experimental results showed a linear relationship between the swing angle and hanging force of the cluster at the start and stop phase of the actuator. The multi-stage cluster's vibration during robotic transportation was observed, and the behavior of cycled damping after a sudden stop of the actuator was found. The simulated results of hanging force of grape cluster in damping phase were agreed with experimental results with R 2 more than 0.90 at an optimum acceleration of 10 m/s 2 . To conclude, this research provides theoretical basics for understanding the complex vibration mechanism of the hanging cluster fruits during speedy robotic transportation operations with low-loss of berry drop both on industrial and farm levels.

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“…The elastic material used to contact the fruit which has been proofed to reduce bruising, and this method could be an easier method to implement during robotic harvesting of cherry tomatoes using a pulling pattern [17][18][19][20]. Detachment force of fruit is greatly affected by the location of the separation point, stem-branch characteristics, and picking patterns [21,22]. The detachment force for sweet peppers [23], pumpkins [24], citrus [25], apples [26], and other fruits [15,[27][28][29] was measured, and the relation between the detachment force and swing angles, gripping force, or bending directions was analyzed in different research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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Experimental and theoretical analysis of fruit plucking patterns for robotic tomato harvesting

Cited by 37 publications

References 16 publications

Optimization and experimental study on structural parameters of bio-inspired tarsus compliant end-effector to reduce the risk of fruit sliding out from end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting

Optimization and experimental study on structural parameters of bio-inspired tarsus compliant end-effector to reduce the risk of fruit sliding out from end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting

Hanging force analysis for realizing low vibration of grape clusters during speedy robotic post-harvest handling

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

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