Fruit Harvesting Robot in Orchard

1. 研究了在大树冠上采摘橙子等水果的机器人。为此，通过试验制作了机械臂样机。在本课题中，对该机械手进行了改进，制作了水果检测视觉系统并进行了实验。进行了果实采收的基础试验。使用彩色电视摄像机将水果图像输入计算机。通过水果和背景之间的颜色差异来识别水果。用立体摄像机的方法计算出了每个水果的三维位置。通过试验，研制出了一种采摘水果的柔性手。这只手由三个橡胶手指组成，用来抓水果，剪刀用来剪茎。它们分别由气动橡胶作动器和气缸驱动。果实收获试验在实验室进行。通过上述图像输入装置检测水果位置，用手指抓好检测到的水果，用剪刀剪断果茎。人们认为这种水果可以由这个机器人收割。制作了一种带有两个图像传感器的水果识别专用电视摄像机，并进行了基础实验。将两幅不同波长（即不同颜色）的图像馈送到这些图像传感器。通过对这些视频信号的比较，得到了清晰的水果图像。通过反复试验，研制出一种用于探测果实附近叶、茎等障碍物的电光传感器。这个传感器能探测到它前面障碍物的位置。将在果园内进行果实采收试验，并对其运行性能进行考察。

1. A robot which harvested fruits on a large canopy such as orange was investigated. For this purpose, a prototype robot manipulator had been made by trial. On this research project, this manipulator was improved and a fruit detecting vision system was made and experimented. Fundametal experiment of fruit harvesting was done.2. A color TV camera was used for feeding the fruit image to the computer. The fruit was recognized by the difference of color between the fruit and the background. The three-dimensional location of each fruit was calculated well by means of a stereo-camera method.3. A fruit harvesting flexible hand was made by trial. This hand consisted of three rubber fingers for grasping the fruit and scissors for cutting the stem. They were respectively driven by pneumatic rubber actuators and a cylinder.4. Fruit harvesting experiment was done in the laboratory. The fruit location was detected by above mentioned image input device and the detected fruit was grasped well by the fingers and the stem was cut by the scissors. It was considered that the fruit could be harvested by this robot.5. A special purpose TV camera with two image sensors for recognizing the fruit was made and the fundamental experiment was done. Two images of different wavelength (i.e. different color) were fed to these image sensors. A clear fruit image was obtained by comparing these video signals.6. An electro-optic sensor for detecting obstacles such as leaves and stems near the fruit was made by trial and experimented. This sensor could detect the position of the obstacles in front of the sensor.7. Fruit harvesting experiment will be done in the orchard and the operating performance will be investigated.