An Efficient Planning and Control Framework for Pruning Fruit Trees

You, Alexander; Sukkar, Fouad; Karkee, Manoj; Davidson, Joseph R.

doi:10.1109/icra40945.2020.9197551

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The term Precision Agriculture is described as being "a management strategy that uses electronic information and other technologies to gather, process, and analyze spatial and temporal data for the purpose of guiding targeted actions that improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability of agricultural operations" [1] . Robotic technology is a powerful tool to realize targeted actions in agriculture, which usually rely on machine vision or other sensing technologies to perform selective or targeted working of seed sowing [77] , Seedling sorting/replanting [78] , spraying [79,80] weeding [81] , pruning [82,83] , trimming [60,[84][85][86] , flower or fruit thinning [87,88] , fruit bagging [87,89,90] , de-leafing [91,92] , pollination [93][94][95][96][97] , bin-handling [98][99][100] , fruit transportation [101,102] , fruit grading [103,104] , etc. (Table 5).…”

Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For pruning, a robotic system must be able to perceive the 3D pose of the branch to be cut, as well as move a cutting implement precisely to a cut point while avoiding obstacles such as other branches or structures [83] . A fully autonomous system must also be able to choose cut points automatically [83] . For trimming, challenges arise to realize the visual servoing control of cutting tools towards the target objects, to represent the correct shape and size of a topiary bush and subsequently deciding where and how much cutting is needed for an overgrown bush [61] .…”

Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development status and trend of agricultural robot technology

Jin¹,

Liu²,

Xu³

et al. 2021

International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

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In the face of the contradiction between the increasing demand for agricultural products and the sharp reduction of agricultural resources and labor force, agricultural robot technology is developing explosively on the basis of decades of technical and industrial exploration. In view of the complexity and particularity of the development of agricultural robot technology, it is of great value to summarize its development characteristics and make reasonable judgments on its development trend. In this paper, the type of agricultural robot systems was first discussed. From the classification of agricultural robot systems, the development of main types of monitoring robots, non-selective and selective working robots for crop farming, livestock and poultry farming and aquaculture were introduced in detail. Then the scientific research, core technology, and commercialization of different types of agricultural robots were summarized. It is believed that navigation in complex agricultural environments, damage-free robot-crop interaction, and agronomy-robot fusion have high scientific value and significance to promote the revolutionary advances in agricultural robot technology. The characteristics of inter-discipline between agricultural robot technology and new materials, artificial intelligence, bionics, agronomy are research focus. The fast damage-free operation, autonomous navigation for complex environments, target detection for complex backgrounds, and special design for agricultural robots are considered to be the key technology of agricultural robot development, and the development path is given. Finally, robot-crop interaction simulation, big data support, and artificial intelligence are regarded as paths to realize the breakthrough of key agricultural robot technologies. The summary and prospect of this paper are of positive significance to promote the overall development of agricultural robot technology.

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Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Other Selective Working Robots In Crop-farmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Development status and trend of agricultural robot technology

Jin¹,

Liu²,

Xu³

et al. 2021

International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering

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“…In this project, much progress has been made in path planning for outdoor platforms, object detection in gardens and automated trimming (Kaljaca et al, 2019; Strisciuglio et al, 2018). More specifically for cherry orchards, You et al (2020) recently developed a conceptual pruning robot. The detection of branches and the possible cutting points has been performed with a RealSense RGB‐D camera in combination with an OctoMap model.…”

Section: Pruningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automation and robotics in the cultivation of pome fruit: Where do we stand today?

Verbiest

Ruysen²,

Vanwalleghem³

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Robotics

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The cultivation of apples and pears in orchards consists of several tasks that still demand much human labor. The cost of this skilled labor increases while the number of competent seasonal workers becomes insufficient. These facts are a threat to the fruit industry. To find a solution, this paper addresses current as well as future automation possibilities for the main orchard tasks as a profitable alternative to human labor. Besides an activity research in pome fruit orchards, this paper contains an overall review of the research and developments that have been performed to automate each major activity (e.g., pruning, thinning, spraying, harvesting and mobile navigating) in the cultivation of pome fruit. These tasks are individually evaluated on feasibility and profitability of the developed automations. Finally, this paper concludes that, despite the large amount of research, almost no fully automated and cost-efficient solution has been developed. A possible option to increase the viability of the prototypes might be the simplification of the tree structures, and consequently the orchard architecture, to make it "robot-ready." Another option in this perspective is combining several techniques, for accomplishing individual tasks, in one multipurpose robot platform. As a result, the usability and efficiency of the robot increases.

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“…Robotic pruning is a selective branch operation that can produce accurate cuts using an end-effector tool attached to the robotic arm (Lehnert, 2012). A few studies have reported the development of pruning robots for different crops such as apple (Zahid et al, 2020a, b), grape [Vitis vinifera (Botterill et al, 2017)], and cherry [Prunus avium (You et al, 2020)]. Robotic pruning of apple trees is a challenging task because the crowded and overlapped branches result in narrow spaces for maneuvering the robot inside the canopy (He and Schupp, 2018;Zahid et al, 2021b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Apple Tree Branch Pruning Analysis

Zahid

Mahmud

et al. 2022

hortte

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ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. automated pruning, branch cutting, branch diameter, cutting angle, Malus ×domestica, pruning end-effector, pruning force, pruning torque, robotic pruning SUMMARY. The torque required to cut branches is an important parameter for designing a robotic end-effector for pruning apple (Malus ×domestica) trees. In this study, the branch cutting torque was measured because it is important for the future development of a robotic pruning end-effector. To measure the branch cutting torque, a force-measuring sensor was integrated with a manual shear pruner. An inertial measurement unit sensor was also used to monitor the angle between the shear blades and the branch. Field tests were conducted for 'Fuji', 'Gala', 'Honeycrisp', and 'Golden Delicious' trees, and the cutting torque was calculated for different branch diameters. The results indicated that the branch diameter is one of the most important factors influencing the pruning torque requirements for all tested cultivars. The statistical tests (0.05 significance) revealed that the pruning torque varies significantly for different branch diameters ranging from 6 to 20 mm. It was found that the cutting torque required for the 'Honeycrisp' branches was significantly lower than that for 'Gala', 'Fuji', and 'Golden Delicious' branches. 'Gala' branches had the highest torque requirements. To cut branches of 'Fuji' trees, the required cutting torque for branches placed at the cutter center was higher compared with the cutter pivot. The statistical tests indicated that the difference in required cutting torques for both branch-blade contact points was significant (0.05 level of significance). The cutting torque requirement for a 30 angle (bevel) cut was higher compared with a 0 (straight) cut for 'Fuji' apple trees, but the statistical analysis suggested that the difference was insignificant at a level of significance of 0.05. Comparing all test results (four cultivars and cutting settings), the highest cutting torque of 6.98 NÁm was observed for 'Fuji' branches with a diameter of 20 mm for a straight cut with the branch placed at the shear cutter center. Therefore, it is suggested that the robotic pruner should provide a comparable torque for successful cutting. The outcomes of this study are important for the selection of appropriate cutting mechanisms for the future development of a robotic pruning system.

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An Efficient Planning and Control Framework for Pruning Fruit Trees

Cited by 31 publications

References 18 publications

Development status and trend of agricultural robot technology

Development status and trend of agricultural robot technology

Automation and robotics in the cultivation of pome fruit: Where do we stand today?

An Apple Tree Branch Pruning Analysis

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