• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2017.04a
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• pp.53-53
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• 2017

연구목적: 국내 과일 산업의 한 단계 도약과 대외 경쟁력을 높이기 위해서는 수확작업의 기계화가 시급함. 이 연구는 국내외 과일 수확 기계화 현황과 문제점을 분석하고, 향후 수확작업 기계화 방향을 제시하고자 수행 수확기계 실용화 현황 및 고찰 (국내) 과일을 직접 수확이 아닌 수확 작업을 보조해주는 고지 작업기(수동형, 모터 진동형)와 고소 작업차가 대부분임. 수동형은 사과 감 등을 수확하지만, 작업능률이 낮고 작업자가 쉽게 피로하여 장시간 작업이 불가능하므로 실질적인 대안이 되지 못함. 진동형은 자체 동력을 이용하여 나무에 진동을 가하여 주로 대추 매실 등 소과류 수확에 이용되고, 수확능률은 우수하나 충격 손상이 많아 개선이 요구됨. 고소작업차는 동력원에 따라 충전식과 엔진식으로 구분되고, 충전식은 엔진식에 비해 진동 소음이 적어 쾌적하지만, 작업시간이 배터리 용량에 제한을 받음. 또한 작업대 작동방식에 따라 리프트형과 붐형으로 구분함. 리프트형은 리프트를 이용하여 작업대를 상하로 구동하는 방식으로 높은 위치의 과실 수확이 어렵고, 작업대 넓이 만큼의 작업 공간(과수간의 거리)이 필요함. 붐형은 필요한 곳으로 접근성이 우수하나 무거운 무게를 지탱하기 어렵기 때문에 본체를 무겁게 하거나 수시로 수확된 과일을 하차시켜야 함. (국외) 수확 후 가공되는 과일류와 포도 올리브 오렌지 매실 등 소과류 수확이 기계화되었지만, 사과 복숭아 등 신선과일은 아직도 외국의 값싼 노동자들에 의존하여 수확되고 있음. 현재 실용화된 수확 기계는 진동식 수확기계와 터널식 수확기계가 대표적임. 진동식은 집게형의 부착기를 나무 줄기에 고정한 후 트랙터 동력원으로 나무에 진동을 가하여 수확하고, 올리브 대추 등과 같은 소과류와 과피가 두꺼운 오렌지 등에 적용되고, 수확 작업능률이 매우 높으나 과일의 낙하 상처를 피할 수 없는 단점이 있음. 터널형은 규격화(과수 크기 및 형태, 재식거리)된 과수원에 잘 적응하도록 설계 제작되어, 과수 위를 지나가면서 내부에 설치된 진동장치와 컨테이너로 과일을 수확하고, 와인용 포도 수확기가 대표적임. 기계수확이 가능하도록 과수원 조성단계에서부터 재배양식(과수 좌우 및 전후 거리)을 기계의 제원(바퀴 간격, 작업부 간격 등)에 맞추어 재배함. 과일 수확로봇에 관한 연구는 활발하고 일부에서 실증시험단계에 있음. 결론: 구체적인 추진방향을 제시하면, 단기적으로는 과일 수확작업자의 작업편이성과 노동강도를 줄일 수 있도록 소형 저가 범용성이 우수한 보조기구/기계의 보급을 확대하고, 중장기적으로는 수확기계/수확로봇 개발을 위한 연구개발비 투자를 늘리는 동시에, 기계/로봇이 과수원에 잘 적응할 수 있도록 수형 재식거리 등 재배양식의 표준화가 추진되어야 함.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.279-285
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• 2002

농업에서 소요되는 노동력 중에서 가장 많은 비중을 차지하고 있는 것이 수확작업이다. 수확작업은 어렵고 힘든 지루한 작업이 반복적으로 수행되는 작업이다. 지상 1m내외에서 결과하는 과채류의 경우 수확 중 많은 노동력을 필요로 한다. 특히 과채류 수확은 연속된 단순 반복 작업으로 작업인의 피로도가 더욱 심화되는 실정으로 재배에 많은 어려움을 낳고 있다. 또한 농산물 수입개방으로 값싼 외국산농산물이 대량 유입되고 있는 실정으로 농산물의 생산비 절감을 통한 대외 경쟁력을 갖추기 위해서는 과채류 수확에 있어서 로봇의 엔드이펙터를 이용하여 수확하는 것이 필요한 실정이다. 그러므로 로봇 수확기의 개발에 있어서 중요한 요소 중 하나인 엔드이펙터 개발이 필요하다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 세가지 형태의 엔드이펙터를 설계 제작하여 실험을 통하여 비교 분석 후 최적의 엔드이펙터를 개발하였다. (중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bio-Environment Control Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.30-34
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• 1999

과채류 수확작업은 어렵고 힘든 지루한 작업이 반복적으로 수행된다. 지상 1m내외에서 결과하는 과채류의 경우 수확 중 많은 노동력을 필요로 한다. 특히 오이의 수확은 연속된 단순 반복 작업으로 작업인의 피로도가 매우 높다. 또한 농산물 수입개방으로 값싼 외국산 농산물이 대량 유입되고 있는 실정으로 농산물의 생산비 절감을 통한 대외 경쟁력을 갖추기 위해서는 과채류 수확에 있어서 로봇을 이용한 수확기 개발이 필요한 실정이다. (중략)

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.63-67
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• 2003

Cucumber fruits requires a lot of labor to harvest in time in Korea, since the fruits are cut and grabbed by hand. In this study, we developed an end-effector for robotic harvester of cucumber fruits. Its development involved the integration of an end-effector system with a PC compatible, DC motors, and a motor controller board. Software, written in Pic-basic, combined the functions of motor control with various circumstances. Cucumber's properties were measured and analyzed for precision of the end-effector. The results were similar to those of other vegetables. Properties including hardness of cucumber fruits were used as basic data for development of a harvester.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.19-28
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• 2023

In the fruit harvesting field, interest in automatic robot harvesting is increasing due to various seasonality and rising harvesting costs. Accurate apple detection is a difficult problem in complex orchard environments with changes in light, vibrations caused by wind, and occlusion of leaves and branches. In this paper, we introduce a dataset and an adaptive heatmap regression model that are advantageous for robot automatic apple harvesting. The apple dataset was labeled with not only the apple location but also the visibility. We propose a method to detect the center point of an apple using an adaptive heatmap regression model that adjusts the Gaussian shape according to visibility. The experimental results showed that the performance of the proposed method was applicable to apple harvesting robots, with MAP@K of 0.9809 and 0.9801 when K=5 and K=10, respectively.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 2003

In this study, a robotic manipulator for harvesting cucumber was developed. The objective of this research was to design and to construct a robotic manipulator specifically tailored to harvest cucumber in the greenhouse. The system was consisted of an integrated end-efffctor, an image processing system and a controlling system. Especially, the image processing system detected the quality of cucumber within each plant in order for the computer to furnish harvest instructions to the manipulator. In all tests of cucumber, the success rate for cucumber harvest was 84％ in the greenhouse. End-effector, image processing system and controlling system showed good performance. Based on the results of this research the following recommendations are made for further study. Besides harvesting cucumbers, the oldest leaves, creepers and the youngest small side leaves need to be removed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.363-367
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• 2006

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.226-236
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• 1998

If the lowest leaves of the cucumber were removed or training cultivable method was changed, a computer vision system could divide well the cucumber fruit from the others, and also an end-effector could reach and grip cucumber fruit and cut well its fruit stalk. Therefore, this study investigated whether removal leaves and training cultivable method of a cucumber could affect its growth and yield. They can help to be designed the vision system and the end-effector. A cucumber fruit grew by 6-l5cm long for 2 days regardless of removing leaves. Removal leaves didn't affect growth of cucumber fruit. Number of cucumber fruit was produced within 10% different values by three methods (A, B, C) of removal leaves. The first grade rate (best quality) of 4 B and C was 56.7%, 53.1%, 56.3% respectively. Consequently, proper removal leaves were better than traditional way, which does not remove a leaf, because they make cucumber plant ventilate more freely and absorb more light.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 2004

The end-effector is the one of the important factors on development of the cucumber robot to harvester a cucumber. Three end-effectors were designed the single blade end-effector with one blade, the double blade end-effector with two blades and the triple blade end-effector with three blades. Performance tests of the end-effector, the fully integrated system, were conducted to determine the cutting rate by using two different kinds of cucumber. The success rates of cucumber cutting ratio of single end-effector, double end-effector and triple end-effector in laboratory. were 61.7%, 95%, 86.7%, respectively. The cutting rate of single blade or double blade was a little difference with respect to the different diameters of cucumber stem. However, the success cutting rate of the end-effector with triple blade was 61.7% under 29mm diameter of a grabbing stem section. The triple end-effector was not suitable for harvesting a cucumber, but was considered to be suitable for harvesting a grape, an apple and a tomato. The success rate of cucumber cutting ratio of triple end-effectors in greenhouse was 84%. The failure cutting rate was 16% which are due to abnormal shape of cucumber fruit.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.517-524
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• 2003

There have been worldwide research and development efforts to automate various processes of bio-production and those efforts will be expanded with priority given to tasks which require high intensive labor or produce high value-added product and tasks under hostile environment. In the field of bio-production capabilities of the versatility and robustness of automated system have been major bottlenecks along with economical efficiency. This paper introduces a new concept of automation based on tole-operation, which can provide solutions to overcome inherent difficulties in automating bio-production processes. Operator(farmer), computer, and automatic machinery share their roles utilizing their maximum merits to accomplish given tasks successfully. Among processes of greenhouse watermelon cultivation tasks such as pruning, watering, pesticide application, and harvest with loading were chosen based on the required labor intensiveness and functional similarities to realize the proposed concept. The developed system was composed of 5 major hardware modules such as wireless remote monitoring and task control module, wireless remote image acquisition and data transmission module, gantry system equipped with 4 d.o.f. Cartesian type robotic manipulator, exchangeable modular type end-effectors, and guided watermelon loading and storage module. The system was operated through the graphic user interface using touch screen monitor and wireless data communication among operator, computer, and machine. The proposed system showed practical and feasible way of automation in the field of volatile bio-production process.