Development of a mobile robot for harvest support in greenhouse horticulture — Person following and mapping

Abstract

Agriculture has been suffering from many problems nowadays, and labor shortage is one of the most serious ones. Automation of agricultural works is a possible solution and many efforts have been made for developing harvest support robots. This paper discusses an application of mobile robot technologies to harvest support in the greenhouse horticulture domain. Although there are several harvest support robots for fruits and vegetables, they usually require modification of a greenhouse for autonomous navigation. We therefore aim to develop a mobile robot that can operate and support harvesting works in normal greenhouses, especially for flowers. Based on an investigation of necessary technologies for harvest support robots, we develop a prototype mobile robot with person following and 3D mapping capabilities. We performed preliminary experiments in a real greenhouse and evaluated the developed robot system.