Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Mushroom cultivation and harvesting in media supported by 3D-printed anisotropic elastic structures

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Artificial Life and Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mushrooms grow so fast during the harvest season that they can double in size in a day. However, the soft and fragile nature of mushrooms makes manual harvesting of domestic brand varieties a necessity. Therefore, an important industrial issue in the efficiency of mushroom cultivation in Japan is how to make mushrooms easy to harvest and grow. The technical elements of mushroom harvesting are (1) non-damaging harvesting methods, (2) control of colony growth, and (3) expansion of growing area. This study proposes a three-dimensional and deformable culture medium to solve the problems (1)–(3). The proposed three-dimensional medium has a 3D-printed anisotropic elastic well structure embedded inside. The medium keeps the medium in a three-dimensional shape and allows mushrooms to be generated from the sides and bottom. In addition, we show that during the harvesting period, by applying pressure to the medium in a single direction. The soil can be removed from each side of the mushrooms and the mushrooms can be harvested.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to protecting the privacy of study participants but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Yongting T, Jun Z (2017) Automatic apple recognition based on the fusion of color and 3D feature for robotic fruit picking. Comput Electron Agric 142:388–396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Edlerman E, Linker R (2019), Autonomous multi-robot system for use in vineyards and orchards. In: 27th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED):274–279

  3. Roemi F, Montes H, Surdilovic J, Surdilovic D, Gonzalez-De-Santos P, Armada M (2018) Automatic detection of field-grown cucumbers for robotic harvesting. IEEE Access 6:35512–35527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Cubero S, Aleixos N, Molto E, Gomez-Sanchis J, Blasco J (2011) Advances in machine vision applications for automatic inspection and quality evaluation of fruits and vegetables. Food Bioprocess Technol 4(4):487–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Reed JN, Tillett RD (1994) Initial experiments in robotic mushroom harvesting. Mechatronics 4(3):265–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rong J, Wang P, Yang Q, Huang F (2021) A field-tested harvesting robot for oyster mushroom in greenhouse. Agronomy 11(6):1210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Sanchez C (2004) Modern aspects of mushroom culture technology. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 64:756–762

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Noble R, Reed JN, Miles S, Jackson AF, Butler J (1997) Influence of mushroom strains and population density on the performance of a robotic harvester. J Agric Eng Res 68(3):215–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Yin H, Yi W, Hu D (2022) Computer vision and machine learning applied in the mushroom industry : a critical review. Comput Electron Agric 198:107015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Yang S, Ji J, Cai H, Chen H (2022) Modeling and force analysis of a harvesting robot for button mushrooms. IEEE Access 10:78519–78526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Huang M, He L, Choi D, Pecchia J, Li Y (2021) Picking dynamic analysis for robotic harvesting of Agaricus bisporus mushrooms. Comput Electron Agric 185:106145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Reed JN, Butler Miles SJ, Baldwin M, Noble R (2001) Automatic mushroom harvester development. J Agric Eng Res 78(1):15–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ohga S, Kitamoto Y (1997) XVI. Future of mushroom production and biotechnology. Food Rev Int 13(3):461–469

  14. Ohenoja E (1978) Mushrooms and mushroom yields in fertilized forests. Ann Botanici Fennici:38-46

  15. Zervakis G, Philippoussis A, Ioannidou S, Diamantopoulou P (2001) Mycelium growth kinetics and optimal temperature conditions for the cultivation of edible mushroom species on lignocellulosic substrates. Folia Microbiol 46:231–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Chen L, Qian L, Zhang X, Li J, Zhang Z, Chen X (2022) Research progress on indoor environment of mushroom factory. Int J Agric Biol Eng 15(1):25–32

    Google Scholar 

  17. Zhang R, Li X, Fadel JG (2002) Oyster mushroom cultivation with rice and wheat straw. Bioresour Technol 82(3):277–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ogawa J, Mori T, Watanabe Y, Kawakami M, Shiblee MDNI, Furukawa H (2022) MORI-a: soft vacuum-actuated module with 3d-printable deformation structure. IEEE Robot Autom Lett 7(2):2495–2502

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Toma T (2019) Material technologies supporting 4DP. J Imaging Soc Jpn 58(4):406–414

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17H01224, JP18H05471, JP19H01122, JST COI Grant Number JPMJCE1314, JPMJOP1844, JPMJOP1614, MS508JPJ009237 and the Cabinet Office (CAO), Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), and Intensive Support for Young Promising Researchers (NEDO), and Funagata Mushroom Farm.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan

    Kouki Saito, Jun Ogawa, Yosuke Watanabe, M. D. Nahin Islam Shiblee, Masaru Kawakami & Hidemitsu Furukawa

Authors
  1. Kouki Saito
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jun Ogawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yosuke Watanabe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. D. Nahin Islam Shiblee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Masaru Kawakami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Hidemitsu Furukawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kouki Saito.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Saito, K., Ogawa, J., Watanabe, Y. et al. Mushroom cultivation and harvesting in media supported by 3D-printed anisotropic elastic structures. Artif Life Robotics 28, 741–749 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-023-00886-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-023-00886-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation