The project for the development of a robot capable of harvesting peppers in greenhouses has concluded, according to sources of the Agricultural University of Wageningen, the Netherlands.
It is a European research project called "Clever Robots for Crops", which was reported to have started on 21 May last year.
The project, coordinated by the Agricultural University of Wageningen, has been funded by the Dutch Horticultural Product Board and thirteen partners from ten different countries.
The robot consists of a transport platform, on which a robotic arm is mounted to grab and cut the peppers, an air compressor, an electronic control system, computers and sensors to detect obstacles.
Peppers are spotted by means of two cameras, allowing it to obtain all necessary information with three-dimensional data. This allows the robotic arm to be placed in the exact position needed to cut the pepper.
In the demonstration, robots carried out a selective harvesting of peppers, apples and grapes, in addition to precision spraying of a pesticide.
All the robots, regardless of the end use intended, use the same modular system and software architecture, which facilitates, for example, the use of different cameras or different types of robotic arms.
Source: Hortoinfo
