Cucumber deleafing robot
Use case description
This experiment developed a new mobile robot capable of removing cucumber leaves without damaging the plant stem. The business case was benchmarked against manual labour and found to be positive. Optimising growing method for robot labour instead of human labour would give extra benefit.
Bringing economically viable robotic harvesting and crop handling technology for greenhouses onto the market, to relieve human labour under harsh and repetitive conditions, to relieve the grower of a declining human labour market and to provide consumers a sustainable solution for future food security. It is the goal to harvest fruit and vegetables automatically, on time and with less manpower resulting in lower production and resource costs whilst solving the labour quality and availability problem.
Approach
In order to reach the long term goal of greenhouse robotics, a demonstrator is built which can harvest leaves in a greenhouse for the use-case of cucumber and tomato, which requires a market exploration and technological feasibility study to be performed. This project will be a use-case to show that the AGROBOFOOD Digital Innovation Hub can be used to gain valuable customer and technology validation.
Standardization needs or Lessons learned
The experiment showed that for this kind of an application it is important to have a mobile platform for robots on a pipe rail system. In addition a a SLAM module for autonomous navigation is necessary and a communication platform for autonomous vehicles.
Key words
Sector/application
*Greenhouse Horticulture – Fruits and Vegetables