• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2020

Fruit and vegetable harvesting robots have been widely studied and developed in recent years to reduce the cost of harvesting tasks such as labor and time. However, harvesting robots have many challenges due to the difficulty and uncertainty of task. In this paper, we characterize the crop environment related to the harvesting robot and analyzes state-of-the-art of the harvesting robot especially, in the viewpoint of robotic end-effector. The end-effector, an one of most important element of the harvesting robot, was classified into gripper and harvesting module, which were reviewed in more detail. Performance measures for the evaluation of harvesting robot such as test, detachment success, harvest success, and cycle time were also introduced. Furthermore, we discuss the current limitations of the harvesting robot and challenges and directions for future research.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.421-441
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• 2021

Fruit detection in orchards is one of the most crucial tasks for designing the visual system of an automated harvesting robot. It is the first and foremost tool employed for tasks such as sorting, grading, harvesting, disease control, and yield estimation, etc. Efficient visual systems are crucial for designing an automated robot. However, conventional fruit detection methods always a trade-off with accuracy, real-time response, and extensibility. Therefore, an improved method is proposed based on coarse-to-fine multitask cascaded convolutional networks (MTCNN) with three aspects to enable the practical application. First, the architecture of Fruit-MTCNN was improved to increase its power to discriminate between objects and their backgrounds. Then, with a few manual labels and operations, synthetic images and labels were generated to increase the diversity and the number of image samples. Further, through the online hard example mining (OHEM) strategy during training, the detector retrained hard examples. Finally, the improved detector was tested for its performance that proved superior in predicted accuracy and retaining good performances on portability with the low time cost. Based on performance, it was concluded that the detector could be applied practically in the actual orchard environment.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2022

The role of drones has been expanded to various fields such as agriculture, construction, and logistics. In particular, agriculture drones are emerging as an effective alternative to solve the problem of labor shortage and reduce the input cost. In this study therefore, we proposed the fruit recognition algorithm and harvesting mechanism for fruit harvesting drone system that can safely harvest fruits at high positions. In the fruit recognition algorithm, we employ "You-Only-Look-Once" which is a deep learning-based object detection algorithm and verify its feasibility by establishing a virtual simulation environment. In addition, we propose the fruit harvesting mechanism which can be operated by a single driving motor. The rotational motion of the motor is converted into a linear motion by the scotch yoke, and the opened gripper moves forward, grips a fruit and rotates it for harvesting. The feasibility of the proposed mechanism is verified by performing Multi-body dynamics analysis.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 1998

Physicochemical properties of early cultivar of Satsuma mandarin(Citrus unshiu Marc. var. miyagawa) according to harvesting year during 1990 to 1995 were investigated. Climatic conditions of every year affected the quality of citrus fruits. Compared to other harvesting years, flesh ratio and soluble solids were higher, but acid content was lower on citrus fruits produced in 1994, as for good climatic conditions during growth of fruits. Especially, acid content of fruits produced in 1993 was higher, compared to those of years, as for low mean temperature and high rainfalls. Fruit weight, peel thickness and soluble solids had a good linear correlation to fruits size, but acid content and flesh ratio had not correlation derived from difference of individual fruits. From the climatic data, the prediction of fruit quality would be possible in some degree before harvest. It seemed recommend to ably the flexibe method by harvesting year for the quality stanardization of citrus fruit.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 1988

This study was carried out to develop an agricultural robot for fruit harvesting. As the first step an experimental manipulator and its control system were constructed. The articulated manipulator driven by DC motors has 3 degrees-of-freedom. The manipulator has a gripper adequate for fruit harvesting and an upper arm which forms a kind of guiding channel so thai harvested fruit can pass through. Point-to-point control of joints are accomplished by a digital control system with a PID controller which consists of optical shaft encoders, power amplifiers using PWM, a microcomputer and a software. The microcomputer also computes the positions of manipulator and sequence of motions. The motion of the manipulator was to slow and rough that it would need further improvement.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: As consumption of unripe mandarin increases, its cultivation has increased in open field cultivation areas. Because unripe mandarin must be harvested before ripening and color change, the optimum harvest time must be determined. This study investigated the effect of the harvest season on the yield of unripe fruit and biennial flowering of 'Miyagawa' satsuma mandarin. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two areas of unripe mandarin orchard were selected, and the yield, fruit growth, working time, and flowering of trees the following year were investigated. Fruit was harvested at 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 days after full bloom and at general ripening. Fruit yield of unripe mandarin increased with later harvest time from 100^th to 120^th day except normal ripening. The next year, biennial occurred with normal ripening and harvesting, but not at the 120^th day after full bloom. At the 40^th day (earliest harvest time), summer and autumn shoots were present, but not after the 100^th day. The 40^th day required the most harvesting time; because the time gradually decreased with later harvest, the harvest time was shortest on the 120^th day, and general ripening occurred shortly after the 120^th day. CONCLUSION: Harvesting of unripe mandarin 100-120 days after full bloom was ideal to reduce harvesting time, enhance yield, and enable flowering the following year.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.411-420
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• 1997

The mechanization efficiency using high ability machines such as tractors or combines in a paddy field rice farm is high. Mechanization in harvesting fruits and vegetables is difficult, because they are easy to be damaged. Therefore, Advanced techniques for careful handling fruits and vegetables are necessary in automation and robotization. An apple harvesting robot must have a recognition device to detect the positioning of fruit, manipulators which function like human arms, and hand to take off the fruit. This study is related to the development of a rotatic hand as the first stage in developing the apple harvesting robot. The results are summarized as follows. 1. It was found that a hand that was eccentric in rotatory motion, was better than a hand of semicircular up-and-down motion in harvesting efficiency. 2. The hand was developed to control changes in grasp forces by using tape-type switch sensor which was attatched to fingers' inside. 3. Initial finger positioning was set up to control accurate harvesting by using a tow step fingering position. 4. This study showed the possibility of apple harvesting using the developed robot hand.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.104-114
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• 1989

The most important subject in developing agricultural robots for fruit harvesting is to detect accurately the location of a fruit about the given coordinate system. This study was carried out to develop an image processing algorithm which enables finding out the three dimensional locations of a fruit. The digital image processing device consisted of an optosensor (Closed-circuit TV camera), image processing interface board (Digitizer) and microcomputer (IBM PC/AT). A stereo-image processing method using the two cameras attached to the manipulator was evaluated through experiment with apples. The accuracy and quickness of detecting the location of apples by this method was not satisfactory. The maximum errors of the detected locations by the stereo-image processing method in x-, Y-, and z- directions were 3, 4 and 4 cm, respectively. The maximum time required to get the rectangular coordinate data of a fruit was about 2 minutes.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.511-516
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• 2000

The strength of the connecting joint of boxthorn(Lycium chinense Mill) fruits to tree twigs was determined experimentally at several pulling angles(0$^{\circ}$, 15$^{\circ}$, 30$^{\circ}$,45$^{\circ}$and 60$^{\circ}$) and at different harvesting seasons from August to November 1999 using an universal testing machine. The detachment force of mature fruits of boxthorn decreased as the pulling angle increased and varied with the harvesting season. The detachment force however did not gradually decreased as the harvesting season advanced due to difference of maturity of fruits from one harvesting season to another. Among three varieties of boxthron Cheongyang gugija Cheongyang native and Cheongyang ＃2, the maximum detachment force was 1.24 N at the pulling angle of zero degree. The highest detachment forve(1.29 N) of mature fruits of boxthorn appeared at the harvesting season of August, 1999.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 1991

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of plant growth regulators, dichlorprop and MCPB on the reduced effect of fruit drop and fruit quality before and after storage in apples. Dichlorprop was tested with dilution of 1000 at 30, 40, 50 days before harvesting, and MCPB with dilution of 4000 at 15, 25, 35 days before harvesting. The results are summarized as follows : Percentage of fruit drop was appeared to the notable reduction as compared with the untreated control when regulators was applied with dilution of 1000 at 30 days before harvesting by dichlorprop and with dilution of 4000 at 35 days before harvesting by MCPB. Degree of fruit colour showed to the remarkable promotion at all the treatment of 30, 40, 50 days before harvesting by dichlorprop as compared with the untreated control. Sugar contents in flesh was increased a little at the treatment of 30 days before harvesting by dichlorprop, but acid contents in flesh was reduced at all the treatment of 30, 40, 50 days before harvesting by dichloroprop and at 15, 25, 35 days before harvesting by MCPB. Passed firmness of fruit after storage was maintained at the treatment with dilution of 4000 at 35 days before harvesting. Therefore, it was repressed a softening of fruit, but by dichlorprop treatment at 30, 40, 50 days before harvesting, fruit firmmess was appeared to reduce according to the passage of storage period. Amount of ethylene evolution after storage was showed to reduce at all the treatment by early treated time of dichoroprop and MCPB, but carbon dioxide increased at treatment conditions such as the front. Accordingly, these relationship showed to be contrary each other.