Design, Modeling and Performance Testing of End-Effector for Sweet Pepper Harvesting Robot Hand

Abstract

This paper presents a new design and modeling fundamentals of gripper and cutting system for 5 degree of freedom robotic arm, designed to harvest sweet peppers in horticultural green house. The design consists of two parallel jaws mounted on gears and operated with the help of servo motor. The same servo motor was used to operate the cutting system which was composed of scissors. The complete system was designed to operate by using one servo motor only. The system model was developed in SolidWorks and tested for different kinematic and dynamic performances. The performance of the gripper and cutting tool system has been evaluated through simulation to determine the design parameters of practical prototype. Based on the design concept, practical prototype of the gripper and cutting system was developed by considering the results obtained by model developed in SolidWorks. The developed prototype was tested to verify the feasibility and reliability of the model developed in Solid-Works. The performance and practical application of the developed prototype was verified and validated by conducting experiments in the lab and greenhouse and comparing the results with simulation results.

Performance Evaluation of a Harvesting Robot for Sweet Pepper

“…Sweet pepper is the second‐largest greenhouse‐grown crop in the Netherlands (1160 ha) and is mostly grown in the same cultivation system, thereby providing an opportunity for automation. Apart from two new initiatives in Australia (Lehnert, Perez, & McCool, ) and Europe (Barth, Hemming, & Van Henten, ), only one harvesting robot for sweet pepper has been developed before, in a project at Kochi University, Japan (Bachche & Oka, ; Kitamura & Oka, ); whereas harvesting robots have been developed for tomato in eight earlier projects (Bac, Van Henten, Hemming, & Edan, ). Presumably, this difference is explained by the remarkable properties of a sweet‐pepper crop.…”

Studying the Methods of Harvesting Garden Strawberry with Robotic Machines

“…Провели аналитическое исследование существующих автоматизированных устройств для сбора земляники [1,2]. При разработке рабочего органа робо-тизированной платформы для машинного сбора земляники учли конструктивные технические решения устройства, которым оснащена зарубежная автоматизированная платформа компании Octinion [3].…”

Deliberation on Design Strategies of Automatic Harvesting Systems: A Survey

“…After deciding on the important parameters and primitive design, it is always good to perform modeling and simulation of the design in appropriate 3D mechanical CAD software to verify the specified parameters and performance under a controlled environment. Edan et al [27] reported a finite element modeling technique and optimization of modeling parameters for melon grippers while Bachche et al [28] and Bachche and Oka [29] described the simulation and modeling methods using Solidworks for a sweet pepper harvesting robot hand ( Figure 2). The modeling of the system provides all optimal parameters which can be used to build the prototype and improve on the system performance obtained in the simulation process.…”