THE FLORIDA ROBOTIC GROVE-LAB

Abstract

ABSTRACT A mobile grove-lab was developed to study the use of robotic technology for picking oranges under actual production conditions. The design and operation of the citms picking robot developed for this facility is described. The sensor system developed to identify and locate fruit in real-time and the state network programming technique used to develop a task-level control program for the citrus picking robot are discussed. The suitability of the vision system and state network programming technique for real-time, vision-servo robotic picking is demonstrated. It was concluded that the technical and economic practicality of robotic citrus harvesting can only be demonstrated with an operational multiple-arm harvesting system. Multiple usage of robotic harvesting equipment and acquisition of detailed production data by a robotic harvester were identified as intangible benefits of robotic harvesting which should encourage the commercial development of a multiple-arm machine.