Rapid Roboting Towards Fruit Harvesting Tool Design and Implementation in Robotic Farming

Abstract

Currently, robotic tools for harvesting fruits are limited to grasping or collecting no more that one fruit at the time. Hence, the timings during harvesting are not right now improved when compared to manual labour. To address this problem, in this work, we have designed and implemented a robot tool to collect more than one fruit at the time. The system is based on rapid roboting techniques, including the use of rapid prototyping and the fact that fruits can be handled as group of assets. Our system was completed with the electronic assembly and the robotic implementation of the tool. Although field tests are still to be carried out, the mechatronic design shows to be promising, putting in evidence the advantages of using rapid roboting for ease industrial prototyping.