Vision Guidance Of A Robotic Tree Fruit Harvester

Abstract

A vision-servo system was developed for an R-R-P robotic tree fruit harvester. Real-time two-dimensional fruit location information was provided by a vision system with the camera incorporated in the harvester's end-effector. Simple proportional gain control laws utilized this vision feedback to independently servo the two revolute joints. Systematic adjustments in controller gains, based on robot orientation and position of targeted fruit, were performed to compensate for variations in vision feedback gains. The developed control system was able to maintain consistent vision-servo dynamics during harvest cycles in spite of significant variations in the vision feedback gains.