Tomato-Harvesting-Robot Competition Towards Smart Agriculture

In agriculture, the aging and depopulation of farmers cause the shortages of farmers and manpower. Most of commercialized robots are industrial robots for factory automation, and most of robots for the first industry, agriculture, forestry and fisheries are still under developing. The reasons are cost-efficiency of the robotization, safety of the works using robots, difficulty of outdoor operations, and knowledge transfer problem from farmers to computer, etc. As one of solutions for the problems, robot technology into the agriculture is expected to contribute to the laborsaving, improvement of production, production line automation, and also the management toward smart-agriculture. We organize the Tomato-harvesting-robot competition to offer the research field and welcome researchers into agricultural robotics.The 2021 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2021), January 21-24, 2021, Higashi-Hiroshima (オンライン開催に変更

Exercise on Environmental Monitoring and Control of Greenhouse by IoT Devices toward Smart Agriculture

As crops in greenhouses are widely distributed, IoT devices placed near the crops should be stand-alone and modular, and data from the devices are collected over the networks. Smart agriculture requires knowledge of a wide range of fields including electricity, information, and image processing. We have designed an AI and IoT technology exercise on environmental monitoring and control of a greenhouse where we have been preparing for grow up of tomatoes and other vegetables.The 2022 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB 2022), January 20-23, 2022, on line, Oita, Japa

Evaluation of Tomato Fruit Harvestability for Robotic Harvesting

Harvestability is a quantitative index of how easy tomato fruits are to harvest using a robot. Previous studies on tomato harvesting robots have focused on tomato fruit detection methods, harvesting mechanisms, harvesting success rates, and harvesting times. However, tomato fruit harvestability using robots has not been quantitatively assessed. In this paper, we propose a method for evaluating the tomato fruit harvestability using a tomato harvesting robot. We first evaluated the harvestability qualitatively, based on the results of harvesting experiments conducted in a tomato greenhouse. Harvestability was then quantitatively evaluated using a camera (hereinafter referred to as a hand camera) attached to an end-effector of the tomato harvesting robot developed. The hand camera consists of an RGB camera and a depth camera. The occlusion ratio of obstacles (stems, peduncles, and other fruits) to a target fruit is calculated using the RGB image and depth image acquired by the hand camera. The larger the occlusion ratio was, i.e., the more obstacles there were in front of the target fruit, the more difficult the target fruit was to harvest. Conversely, if the occlusion ratio is low, the harvestability is high. This study shows that the occlusion ratio is effective as a quantitative indicator of the tomato fruit harvestability.2021 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integrations (SII), January 11 - 14, 2021, Iwaki, Fukushima, Japa

Development and Evaluation of a Tomato Fruit Suction Cutting Device

This paper introduces a structure and harvesting motion for the suction cutting device of a tomato harvesting robot, and reports harvesting experiments conducted in a tomato greenhouse. The suction cutting device comprises a suction part and a cutting part. The suction part separates the target fruit from a tomato cluster and the cutting part cuts the peduncle of the target fruit. A photoresistor in the cutting part assesses whether or not the target fruit is harvestable, and the cutting motion is performed only when the fruit is assessed as harvestable. The harvesting experiments were conducted in a tomato greenhouse to evaluate the suction cutting device. In this experiments, 50 tomato clusters were randomly selected as the harvesting objects, and there were 203 tomato fruits (including immature fruits). Out of the 203 tomato fruits, 114 tomato fruits were mature and within the robot workspace. Out of the 114 tomato fruits, 105 tomato fruits were recognized as target fruits by the harvesting robot. Out of these 105 tomato fruits, 65 tomato fruits were assessed as harvestable and 55 were successfully harvested (the harvesting success rate was 85%). Based on the results of the harvesting experiments, this study clarified the issues of the suction cutting device, classified the fruits according to whether they were easy or difficult to harvest, and evaluated the fruit characteristics qualitatively.2021 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integrations (SII), January 11 - 14, 2021, Iwaki, Fukushima, Japa

Understanding Trichoderma bio-inoculants in the root ecosystem of Pinus radiata

Oral presentation on understanding Trichoderma bio-inoculants in the root ecosystem of Pinus radiat

Growth State Map for Automatic Harvesting of Tomato Fruits

九州工業大学博士学位論文 学位記番号：生工博甲第406号 学位授与年月日：令和3年3月25日1. 序論|2. 栽培領域のモザイク画像の生成|3. トマト果実の検出及び生育状態の推定|4. 収穫しやすさの評価|5. 生育状態マップの導入|6. 結論九州工業大学令和2年

ATHENA Research Book, Volume 2

ATHENA European University is an association of nine higher education institutions with the mission of promoting excellence in research and innovation by enabling international cooperation. The acronym ATHENA stands for Association of Advanced Technologies in Higher Education. Partner institutions are from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovenia: University of Orléans, University of Siegen, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Niccolò Cusano University, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Polytechnic Institute of Porto and University of Maribor. In 2022, two institutions joined the alliance: the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University from Poland and the University of Vigo from Spain. Also in 2022, an institution from Austria joined the alliance as an associate member: Carinthia University of Applied Sciences. This research book presents a selection of the research activities of ATHENA University's partners. It contains an overview of the research activities of individual members, a selection of the most important bibliographic works of members, peer-reviewed student theses, a descriptive list of ATHENA lectures and reports from individual working sections of the ATHENA project. The ATHENA Research Book provides a platform that encourages collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects by advanced and early career researchers