Structural Environment Suited to the Operation of a Strawberry-harvesting Robot Mounted on a Travelling Platform

Abstract

To establish a structural environment suited to the operation of a strawberry-harvesting robot, a rolling-type hanging bench and travelling platform were developed. The rolling-type hanging bench, consisting a bench frame, a driving shaft, a DC motor, a pinion-rack and a rolling plate, moved left and right along the beam of the greenhouse and could change the width of the path. The travelling platform, consisting of a main frame and a table, was a gantry structure that enabled a robot to move both in the path direction and sideways. No severe mechanical vibration during stepwise path travel at speed of 182 mm s–1 was observed, although negative slippage was occurred. It was verified that the travelling platform performs stable travelling.