Strawberry Harvesting Robot
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Faculty Mentor Name
Rahim Khoie
Faculty Mentor Department
Electrial & Computer Engineering
Additional Faculty Mentor Name
Elizabeth Basha
Additional Faculty Mentor Department
Electrical & Computerr Engineering
Abstract/Artist Statement
Despite extensive use of robots in automation factories, practical success of robots on harvesting tasks is still limited. The aim of these robots is to assist farmers in laborious harvesting work. To accomplish this, two main difficulties have to be faced: time, robots have to help farmers save time during the harvesting period; and quality, the harvested crops shall not be damaged or misplaced. This project involves only the mobile platform component of the system. A robotic arm which will pick berries and place them into a storage container connected to the robot was developed separately. The mobile platform utilized a combination of electrical and mechanical systems, including components such as a minicomputer, microcontroller, motor circuit, a camera, and proximity sensors. The result of this project’s development was a completed robot that autonomously navigates itself in a given environment, is aware of obstacles and turning points, and generates spatial coordinates for any strawberries it detects.
Location
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Start Date
4-5-2018 2:30 PM
End Date
4-5-2018 4:00 PM
Strawberry Harvesting Robot
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Despite extensive use of robots in automation factories, practical success of robots on harvesting tasks is still limited. The aim of these robots is to assist farmers in laborious harvesting work. To accomplish this, two main difficulties have to be faced: time, robots have to help farmers save time during the harvesting period; and quality, the harvested crops shall not be damaged or misplaced. This project involves only the mobile platform component of the system. A robotic arm which will pick berries and place them into a storage container connected to the robot was developed separately. The mobile platform utilized a combination of electrical and mechanical systems, including components such as a minicomputer, microcontroller, motor circuit, a camera, and proximity sensors. The result of this project’s development was a completed robot that autonomously navigates itself in a given environment, is aware of obstacles and turning points, and generates spatial coordinates for any strawberries it detects.