Kinematic Analysis and Simulation of an Orange Harvesting Robot

Abstract

One of the most challenging areas in robot design is its kinematic analysis for proper and efficient path planning. In agricultural robots, this study is even more crucial due to the uneven terrain and unstructured environment. In agricultural robots, work has been done on fruit harvesting robots yet its commercial recognition is still underway. Further research needs to be done in this field to make the fruit harvesting robots more commercially acceptable. In this paper, a 6 degree of freedom (DOF) orange harvesting robot is designed and its kinematic analysis is done. Forward kinematic is done using Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters while the inverse kinematics is done using algebraic method. The calculated formulas are verified by simulation on RoboAnalyzer software. The algorithm for inverse kinematics using probabilistic approach did not generate any error and worked successfully generating 16 results within the workspace. The simulated dynamic results also supported the kinematic model. The kinematic study validates the model design and calculations, whereas, its simulation verifies the path planning and reachability of oranges on the trees within the confined workspace.