Tele-robotics in Agriculture

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Tomato harvesting experiments were carried out by using a data-collecting robot, a harvesting robot and networks in order to develop a tele-robotics in agriculture.The data-collecting robot which consisted of a color camera, a laser scanner and a lift collected information including color images and three-dimensional data in a greenhouse and sent them to a server via wireless LAN. Discrimination and depth measurement of ripe fruits were carried out by the server and the results were stored in the server. A distant operator checked the judgment by the server at anytime. If there were errors or matters to be corrected in the judgment, they were modified by the operator. The results were sent to the harvesting robot via the server. The harvesting robot consisted of a 5 DOF articulated manipulator, a multi-fingered hand, a lift. The robot harvested fruits by rotating after the target fruits separated from the cluster by a suction cup moved back and forth. From the results, 74 % of fruits were discriminated by the server. The harvesting robot harvested a front fruit in a cluster, however could not harvest fruits when a cluster position was changed during harvesting action. The total success rate of harvesting was 56.7 %.To enhance the success rates, the algorithm of fruit discrimination was improved and a color camera was added to the harvesting robot so that fruit location could be detected even though it has been changed. From the results, more than 90 % of fruits were discriminated by the algorithm and were harvested successfully.In this study, it was considered that a feasibility of actualization of tele-robotics in agriculture was confirmed.