CROPS : Clever robots for crops

In the EU-funded CROPS project robots are developed for site-specific spraying and selective harvesting of fruit and fruit vegetables. The robots are being designed to harvest crops, such as greenhouse vegetables, apples, grapes and for canopy spraying in orchards and for precision target spraying in grape vines. Attention is paid to the detection of obstacles for autonomous navigation in a safe way in plantations and forests. For the different applications, platforms were built. Sensing systems and vision algorithms have been developed. For software the Robot Operating System is used. A 9 degrees of freedom manipulator was designed and tested for sweet-pepper harvesting, apple harvesting and in close range spraying. For the applications different end-effectors were designed and tested. For sweet pepper a platform that can move in between the crop rows on the common greenhouse rail system which also serves as heating pipes was built. The apple harvesting platform is based on a current mechanical grape harvester. In discussion with growers so-called \u2018walls of fruit trees\u2019 have been designed which bring robots closer to the practice. A canopy-optimised sprayer has been designed as a trailed sprayer with a centrifugal blower. All the applications have been tested under practical conditions

Flottes de robots pour un contrôle phytosanitaire non nuisible pour l'environnement

International audienceFeeding the growing global population requires an annual increase in food production. This requirement suggests an increase in the use of pesticides, which represents an unsustainable chemical load for the environment. To reduce pesticide input and preserve the environment while maintaining the necessary level of food production, the efficiency of relevant processes must be drastically improved. Within this context, this research strived to design, develop, test and assess a new generation of automatic and robotic systems for effective weed and pest control aimed at diminishing the use of agricultural chemical inputs, increasing crop quality and improving the health and safety of production operators. To achieve this overall objective, a fleet of heterogeneous ground and aerial robots was developed and equipped with innovative sensors, enhanced endeffectors and improved decision control algorithms to cover a large variety of agricultural situations. This article describes the scientific and technical objectives, challenges and outcomes achieved in three common crops