Automatic Geranium Stock Processing In A Robotic Workcell

Abstract

ABSTRACT A robotic workcell has been developed for processing geranium cuttings used for vegetative propagation. Six unit operations including retrieving the cuttings from a conveyor, trimming to size, removing select leaves, grading, and inserting the finished product into a plug tray cell were incorporated into the workcell configuration. Machine vision was used to characterize the branching structure of each individual cutting and determine appropriate processing and grading strategies. Fixtures placed in the workcell assisted in the processing while the robotic arm handled the cutting and yielded an average cycle time of 6.5 s. Evaluation of the workcell on two varieties demonstrated good overall performance and results corresponded favorably to cuttings manually processed.