A new Robotic solution for autonomous clipping of seedlings

北美各地的室内农场和温室都使用专门繁殖计划中发芽的蔬菜和水果幼苗。繁殖计划每年产生1400亿株幼苗。目前项目的重点是使繁殖过程中修剪幼苗的劳动密集型任务自动化。修剪是一种手工作业，用橡皮筋或塑料夹子夹住植物的主干和一根木棍，为植物提供额外的支撑，避免在运输过程中损坏。修剪任务包括一名工人（农民）伸展橡皮筋或挤压塑料夹，将其放在茎上，同时他/她弯腰或跪在地板上或越过1.5米宽的桌子。这是一项对体力要求很高的艰苦工作，由于长时间的身体姿势尴尬，对身体造成了很高的伤害。它也是在整个传播过程中造成瓶颈的最耗时和最费力的部分之一。目前，在所有繁殖设施中手动进行修剪，该项目的目标是开发一种自主修剪幼苗的创新解决方案。该项目的成果将通过直接节约成本、避免工伤、创造就业机会、提高竞争力和推进机器人农业的新知识和技术，使该项目的工业合作伙伴、安大略省和整个温室产业受益。该项目为机器人、软件工程和机器学习等高等教育领域的高价值培训机会提供了丰富的环境。

Indoor farms and greenhouses across North America use vegetable and fruit seedlings that are sprouted in specialized propagation plans. The propagation plans produce 140 billion seedlings each year. The focus of the current project is to automate the labor-intensive task of clipping seedlings during propagation. The clipping is a manual task of putting a rubber band or a plastic clip around the plant main stem and a wooden stick to provide additional support to the plant and avoid damages during transportation. The clipping task involves a human worker (farmer) to stretch a rubber band or squeeze a plastic clip open and put it around the stem while he/she is bending or kneeing on the floor or reaching across a 1.5 m wide table. This is a physically demanding and painstaking task that takes a high toll on body due to an awkward body posture for an extended period of time. It is also one of the most time consuming and laborious part that creates a bottleneck in the entire propagation process. The clipping is currently performed manually across all propagation facilities and the objective of this project is to develop an innovative solution for autonomous clipping of seedlings. The results from this project will benefit the industrial partners of the project, the province of Ontario, and the greenhouse industry as a whole through direct cost saving, avoid work-related injuries, job creation, enhance competitiveness, and advancement of new knowledge and technologies in robotic agriculture. The project provides an enriched environment for high-value training opportunities in post secondary education in robotics, software engineering, and machine learning.