DEVELOPMENT OF THE GRAFTING ROBOT FOR CUCUMBER SEEDLINGS

With the object of doing mechanical grafting of cucurbitaceous vegetables, the grafting robot was developed in 1989. This robot consists of the following components : feeding wheels, grippers, conveying wheels, cutters , fixing clipper, discharger , controller and power supply. One cycle time to produce a grafted plant is about 3 seconds, Results of some cucumber grafting tests : successful grafting rate of 98 percent and after acclimation, a successful agglutination rate of 95 percent. These techniques are now transferring to the private company. The commercial robot will come into the market in this year.