A hybrid control multi-agent cooperative system for autonomous bin transport during apple harvest

Abstract

Apple harvest is a time-consuming process which requires intensive skilled labor. Precision agriculture and automation solutions are facing several challenges such as entangled tasks, complex dynamics, challenging terrains, and cost-effectiveness. This paper introduces a hybrid control multi-agent cooperative system to incorporate pickers' manual skills and flexibility with robots precision, and navigation ability to automate bins transportation in order to optimize harvest time and cost. This paper presents a multi-agent cooperative system and a simulation of a tractor to transport fixed fruit bins versus a simulation of a robot agent employed by the system as an autonomous bin.