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About

Longtao Mu is a leading researcher in agricultural robotics, with a focused expertise in the mechanized harvesting of kiwifruit. His work addresses the critical challenge of labor-intensive fruit picking, which accounts for over 25% of annual production costs. Mu’s major contribution is the design and simulation of an integrated end-effector for kiwifruit harvesting robots, a novel grabbing-picking-sliding mechanism that enables nondestructive, automated picking of clustered fruit in scaffolding cultivation. This flagship work, published in 2019, has garnered 127 citations, underscoring its impact on the field. He has also authored a comprehensive review on mechanized technologies for scaffolding cultivation (23 citations), providing a roadmap for commercializing kiwifruit production. More recently, Mu has extended his research into robot manipulator control using ROS, simulating Cartesian space clamping movements to improve sorting automation (10 citations). His work bridges the gap between theoretical robotics and practical agricultural needs, offering scalable solutions to reduce labor costs and enhance industrial value. Mu’s contributions are essential reading for researchers and engineers developing next-generation harvesting systems.