BLOB Analysis for Fruit Recognition and Detection

Robot application in agriculture can ease the farming process, especially as the harvesting robot for seasonal fruit that is available in a short time. The addition of "eye" as the image sensor is an important feature for a harvesting robot. Thanks to the increment of technology, the camera is getting smaller with better performance, and lower prices. The cheap sensors and components make the creation of cheap and effective robot possible. Image processing is necessary for object detection, and open source software is available now for this purpose. This paper proposes BLOB analysis for object detection of 5 fruits with different shapes and colors. The simulation results show that the proposed method is effective for object detection regardless the shapes, colors, and noises

Inverse kinematic analysis of 4 DOF pick and place arm robot manipulator using fuzzy logic controller

The arm robot manipulator is suitable for substituting humans working in tomato plantation to ensure tomatoes are handled efficiently. The best design for this robot is four links with robust flexibility in x, y, and z-coordinates axis. Inverse kinematics and fuzzy logic controller (FLC) application are for precise and smooth motion. Inverse kinematics designs the most efficient position and motion of the arm robot by adjusting mechanical parameters. The FLC utilizes data input from the sensors to set the right position and motion of the end-effector. The predicted parameters are compared with experimental results to show the effectiveness of the proposed design and method. The position errors (in x, y, and z-axis) are 0.1%, 0.1%, and 0.04%. The rotation errors of each robot links (θ1, θ2, and θ3) are 0%, 0.7% and 0.3%. The FLC provides the suitable angle of the servo motor (θ4) responsible in gripper motion, and the experimental results correspond to FLC’s rules-based as the input to the gripper motion system. This setup is essential to avoid excessive force or miss-placed position that can damage tomatoes. The arm robot manipulator discussed in this study is a pick and place robot to move the harvested tomatoes to a packing system

Model of field robot manipulators and sensor for measuring angular displacement of its rotating parts

This research aims to measure and control the angular change of rotation mechanisms of (energy-saving) robotic manipulators used in agriculture to develop digital farming, energy saving, and quality product harvesting. The novelty of this research is that different processes and images are placed in a special processor for processing, and this robot processes the image according to the size of the tomato plant and tomato and tries to harvest the crop. This study presents the electromagnetic angular displacement sensor and its technical characteristics. The existing electromagnetic angular displacement sensors have been thoroughly analyzed and compared with other types of sensors. The reason for the low sensitivity of the electromagnetic angular displacement sensor has been investigated, and some technical modification to the existing sensor has been made. The magnetic circuits of the electromagnetic sensors have been analyzed. A method is proposed for expanding the range of angular measurements up to 180 degrees and increasing the sensitivity of the electromagnetic sensor without compromising the measurement accuracy. This, in turn, allows high-precision control and measurement of rotating mechanisms of all types of mechatronic systems and agricultural robots