Design and Experimental Research of an Automatic Wolfberry Harvesting Robot Using Vibration

Abstract

With the rapid development of the social economy and the growing in demand for healthy food, the scale of wolfberry planting and the market demand for wolfberry continue to expand. The wolfberry industry is experiencing vigorous growth. The industry is facing increasingly prominent problems such as high cost, difficulty in picking, and low efficiency, which are restricting its growth. We have thoroughly investigated the current research status of the wolfberry industry and compiled a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of various berry picking devices. To solve the above problems, we developed an automatic harvesting robot. The overall design scheme includes the drone with machine vision recognition technology the vibrator, collector, and Rail guided vehicle (RGV). Results from robot vibration experiments and slow-motion shedding experiment confirm the effectiveness of the vibration induced fruit harvesting process.