Identification of pruning branches in tall spindle apple trees for automated pruning

Karkee, Manoj; Adhikari, Bikram; Amatya, Suraj; Zhang, Qin

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2014.02.013

Cited by 94 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Skeletonization is the process of recovering a model from images of objects with a network structure, such as branching plants. Liu, Kantor, De la Torre, & Zheng () and Karkee, Adhikari, Amatya, & Zhang () each proposed offline systems for modeling trellised apple trees for deciding where to prune. The trees are structurally simple, with one trunk and few overlapping branches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Robot System for Pruning Grape Vines

Botterill

Paulin

Green

et al. 2016

Journal of Field Robotics

180

119

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This paper describes a robot system for the automatic pruning of grape vines. A mobile platform straddles the row of vines, and it images them with trinocular stereo cameras as it moves. A computer vision system builds a three-dimensional (3D) model of the vines, an artificial intelligence (AI) system decides which canes to prune, and a six degree-of-freedom robot arm makes the required cuts. The system is demonstrated cutting vines in the vineyard. The main contributions of this paper are the computer vision system that builds 3D vine models, and the test of the complete-integrated system. The vine models capture the structure of the plants so that the AI system can decide where to prune, and they are accurate enough that the robot arm can reach the required cuts. Vine models are reconstructed by matching features between images, triangulating feature matches to give a 3D model, then optimizing the model and the robot's trajectory jointly (incremental bundle adjustment). Trajectories are estimated online at 0.25 m/s, and they have errors below 1% when modeling a 96 m row of 59 vines. Pruning each vine requires the robot arm to cut an average of 8.4 canes. A collision-free trajectory for the arm is planned in intervals of 1.5 s/vine with a rapidly exploring random tree motion planner. The total time to prune one vine is 2 min in field trials, which is similar to human pruners, and it could be greatly reduced with a faster arm. Trials also show that the long chain of interdependent components limits reliability. A commercially feasible pruning robot should stop and prune each vine in turn. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Robot System for Pruning Grape Vines

Botterill

Paulin

Green

et al. 2016

Journal of Field Robotics

180

119

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“…Image processing and skeletonization steps are performed, resulting in the tree structure of trunk and primary branches. This system is also used in Karkee et al (2014) to implement a pruning protocol based on branch spacing and branch length.…”

Section: Robotic Pruningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of agricultural robots in orchard management

Zhang¹,

Karkee²,

Tabb³

2019

Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science

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The use of robotic or automated machines in orchard operations is associated primarily with insufficient labor availability and rapidly increasing labor costs in tree fruit production and is critical for improving yield of high-quality fruit with minimal dependence on seasonal human labor. Primarily, mechanized or robotic orchard management operations (after establishment of the trees) include pruning, thinning, spraying and harvesting.Pruning is an operation to grow fruit trees into a desired shape for improving sunlight penetration into the canopies, supporting more effective (e.g. more human-and machinefriendly) orchard operations, and regulating location and amount of fruiting sites that can lead to improved yield and quality of fruit. Pruning is physically cutting and removing parts of a tree, such as cutting branches back and/or removing small limbs entirely following some guidelines. This operation requires workers have a specific level of knowledge and skill to perform the job well. Pruning is performed both in the winter (also called "dormant pruning") and in the summer. Currently, research and development of robotic pruning is focused primarily on dormant pruning, therefore, we will focus on dormant pruning for the remainder of this chapter.Fruit trees' bloom often includes many more flowers than are required for producing desired yield and quality of a commercial crop. Crop thinning is a practice to manage/control crop load by removing a portion of the bloom and/or young fruit on the tree either selectively or non-selectively to improve the size and quality of the remaining fruit. Thinning is commonly performed during and shortly after the bloom period to reduce the number of set fruit using either chemical thinners or physical means. However, thinning can occur later in the season to remove poor quality fruit or those growing too close together to ensure good quality and size of the remaining ones using only physical means. Currently research and development of robotic thinning technologies is more focused on blossom thinning, and therefore, we will focus on this aspect of thinning in this chapter.Pest control is an essential operation in orchard management to protect the yield and quality of fruit from various types of pests. One solution to achieve effective pest control is to spray recommended pesticides at the correct time and correct rate to the target area. Due to the confined environment in tree fruit orchards, spraying pesticides is inherently hazardous for the operators driving a sprayer. Robotic sprayers are probably the best solution to ensure operator safety and efficiency in pest control.Fruit harvesting for fresh market consumption requires a large seasonal semi-skilled workforce which has created a critical labor-related risk of not having enough workers to perform this time-sensitive task. In addition, harvesting labor is already the most significant

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“…for the intensive architectural trees. With the simplified tree architecture, tree branches could be detected and identified much easier, thus to apply simple rules for robotic pruning (Karkee et al, 2014).…”

Section: Horticultural Advancementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In robotic pruning, cuts must be precisely defined so the computer can transfer accurate information to the pruner. Researchers have studied on developing simple and quantified pruning rules to increase the feasibility of using robotic and automated pruning (Karkee et al, 2014). Two examples of quantified pruning rules are given here, which could be potentially used for robotic pruning systems.…”

Section: Pruning Strategies For Automated Pruningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensing and Automation in Pruning of Tree Fruit Crops: A Review

Schupp¹

2018

Preprint

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Pruning is one of the most important tree fruit production activities, which is highly dependent on human labor. Skilled labor is in short supply, and the increasing cost of labor is becoming a big issue for the tree fruit industry. Growers are motivated to seek mechanical or robotic solutions for reducing the amount of hand labor required for pruning. This paper reviews the research and development of sensing and automated systems for branch pruning for tree fruit production. Horticultural advancements, pruning strategies, 3D structure reconstruction of tree branches, as well as practice mechanisms or robotics are some of the developments that need to be addressed for an effective tree branch pruning system. Our study summarizes the potential opportunities for automatic pruning with machine-friendly modern tree architectures, previous studies on sensor development, and efforts to develop and deploy mechanical/robotic systems for automated branch pruning. We also describe two examples of qualified pruning strategies that could potentially simplify the automated pruning decision and pruning end-effector design.  Finally, the limitations of current pruning technologies and other challenges for automated branch pruning are described, and possible solutions are discussed.

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Identification of pruning branches in tall spindle apple trees for automated pruning

Cited by 94 publications

References 6 publications

A Robot System for Pruning Grape Vines

A Robot System for Pruning Grape Vines

The use of agricultural robots in orchard management

Sensing and Automation in Pruning of Tree Fruit Crops: A Review

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