Design and Simulation of a Master-Slave Robot for Apple Harvest

Abstract

Apple harvest is a heavy labor and time consuming task, and is mainly conducted manually currently. Workers need to grasp the apple body from the branch and then cut the apple stem with clippers. This paper has made effort to realize these operations with an under-actuated manipulator. This manipulator is driven pneumatically and is expected to grasp the apple body and then cut the stem in a designed sequence. A camera is embedded on the manipulator to obtain the eye in hand style. A SCARA robot arm is employed to locate the manipulator to the target apple under the control of master device, which could be operated manually and navigated by the camera image feedback. The displacement of the under-actuated manipulator is simulated to approve the design concept.