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Design of an autonomous agricultural robot

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Abstract

This paper presents a state-of-the-art review in the development of autonomous agricultural robots including guidance systems, greenhouse autonomous systems and fruit-harvesting robots. A general concept for a field crops robotic machine to selectively harvest easily bruised fruit and vegetables is designed. Future trends that must be pursued in order to make robots a viable option for agricultural operations are focused upon.

A prototype machine which includes part of this design has been implemented for melon harvesting. The machine consists of a Cartesian manipulator mounted on a mobile chassis pulled by a tractor. Two vision sensors are used to locate the fruit and guide the robotic arm toward it. A gripper grasps the melon and detaches it from the vine. The real-time control hardware architecture consists of a blackboard system, with autonomous modules for sensing, planning and control connected through a PC bus. Approximately 85% of the fruit are successfully located and harvested.

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  1. Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Yael Edan

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  1. Yael Edan
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Edan, Y. Design of an autonomous agricultural robot. Appl Intell 5, 41–50 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872782

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872782

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