End-to-end coconut harvesting robot

Abstract

World coconuts production increasingly demands a huge number of raw coconuts to be cultivated. This is starting as everyday needs, foods, traditional cuisines, to many industries which depend on raw coconuts. While coconut production in Indonesia has only contributed to 27%, yet Indonesia has the biggest coconut area in the world. This is because coconuts are often cultivated conventionally, climbing by men. The condition is worsen as the number of men climbing coconut trees has increasingly decreased and industries requires to reduce cost production. In this paper, we develop an end-to-end autonomous coconut-harvesting-robot for easy operation and portable to carry along in large plantations. First, a novel climbing and fastening mechanism to climb a tree with varying diameter is introduced. Second, position of a coconut is then detected using steady-state genetic algorithm followed by sending a command to harvest the detected coconut using an extendable arm equipped with a specifically designed saw. Experiment results show the ability of the robot to harvest coconuts.