Target path setting method of root cutting blades for an automatic harvester for soft leaf vegetables and its verification by field tests

Abstract

The present paper discusses on an automatic spinach harvester with a root cutting blade whose position and angle are automatically controlled. The position control of the blade is performed with a mechanism controlling the arm length and the angle control is executed by a mechanism controlling the angle of the blade. The path the blade moving is important for successful automatic harvesting; therefore specifying the appropriate commands to the angle of the blade as well as the length of the arm embodies the desired one. The present paper proposes a method to design an appropriate path of the blade based on the various desirable conditions in harvesting by specifying commands to the angle of the blade as well as the length of the arm. The proposed path involves robustness for variation by accidental translational motion in vertical direction of the cutting blade. The effectiveness of the proposed path is verified in field tests.