In-Field Recognition and Navigation Path Extraction For Pineapple Harvesting Robots

Abstract

Fruit recognition and navigation path extraction are important issues for developing fruit harvesting robots. This manuscript presents a recent study on developing an algorithm for recognizing “on-the-go” pineapple fruits and the cultivation rows for a harvesting robotic system. In-field pineapple recognition can be difficult due to many overlapping leaves from neighbouring plants. As pineapple fruits (Ananas comosus) are normally located at top of the plant with a crowned by a compact tuft of young leaves, image processing algorithms were developed to recognize the crown to locate the corresponding pineapple fruit in this study. RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) images were firstly collected from top-view of pineapple trees in the field and transformed into HSI (Hue, Saturation and Intensity) colour model. Then, Features of pineapple crowns were extracted and used for developing a classification algorithm. After the pineapple crowns were recognized, locations of the crowns grown in one row were determined and l...