• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2014

Oriental melon (Cucumis melo var. makuwa) should be cultivated on the soil and be harvested. It is difficult to find because it is covered with leaves, and furthermore, it is very hard to grip it due to its climbing stems. This study developed and tested oriental melon harvesting robots such as an end-effector, manipulator and identification device. The end effector is divided into a gripper for harvest and a cutter for stems. In addition, it was designed to control the gripping and cutting forces so that the gripper could move four fingers at the same time and the cutter could move back and forth. The manipulator was designed to realize a 4-axis manipulator structure to combine orthogonal coordinate-type and shuttle-type manipulators with L-R type model to rotate based on the central axis. With regard to the identification device, oriental melon was identified using the primary identification global view camera device and secondary identification local view camera device and selected in the prediction of the sugar content or maturity. As a result of the performance test using this device, the average harvest time was 18.2 sec/ea, average pick-up rate was 91.4%, average damage rate was 8.2% and average sorting rate was 72.6%.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.415-420
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• 2000

It is very difficult to mechanize tomato harvesting because identifying a target tomato which is partly covered by leaves and stalks is not easy. This research was conducted to develop tomato harvesting robot which can identifying a target tomato, determining its dimensional position, and harvesting it in a limited time. Followings were major findings in this study. The first visual system of the robot was composed of two CCD cameras, however, which could not detect tomato not placed on the center of lens and partly covered by leaves or stalks. Secondary visual device, combined with two cameras and pan tilting was designed which could decreased the positioning errors within $\pm$10mm but still not enough for covered tomato by any obstacles. Finally, laser detector was added to the visual system that could reduce the position detecting errors within 10mm in X-Y direction and 5mm in Z direction for the covered tomatoes.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2020

Fruit and vegetable harvesting robots have been widely studied and developed in recent years to reduce the cost of harvesting tasks such as labor and time. However, harvesting robots have many challenges due to the difficulty and uncertainty of task. In this paper, we characterize the crop environment related to the harvesting robot and analyzes state-of-the-art of the harvesting robot especially, in the viewpoint of robotic end-effector. The end-effector, an one of most important element of the harvesting robot, was classified into gripper and harvesting module, which were reviewed in more detail. Performance measures for the evaluation of harvesting robot such as test, detachment success, harvest success, and cycle time were also introduced. Furthermore, we discuss the current limitations of the harvesting robot and challenges and directions for future research.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.749-754
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• 2021

In order to solve problems such as a decrease in the agricultural population and an aging population, research on agricultural robots is being actively conducted for the purpose of automating various agricultural tasks. The harvesting process is the most labor-intensive process among farm work and this process consumes about 2-3 times more compared to other processes. Since the transport of agricultural crops requires the most labor costs and there is a risk of injury during the operation, automating the transport operation through an agricultural robot can improve safety and significantly improve productivity. Therefore, this paper proposes an agricultural robot that is optimized for farm worksites and capable of autonomous driving.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2003.02a
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• pp.393-399
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• 2003

산업의 발전과 더불어 농업인구는 해마다 감소하고 있으며 농업 연령층은 고령화 현상이 나타나고 있다. 전체 농가인구와 호당 농업인구가 줄어들고 있는데 반해 호당 경지면적은 매년 증가하고 있다. 노동력은 농업생산비의 가장 큰 비중을 차지하고 있고, 농가의 연령층 또한 고령화가 되어가고 있음을 고려해 본다면 농업의 기계화ㆍ자동화의 필요는 절대적이다. 수확은 재배 과정 가운데 노동력, 시간 및 비용이 가장 많이 소요되는 작업이다. 본 연구는 수확용 매니퓰레이터의 개발을 위한 기구학적 분석을 하는 것이다. 구체적인 연구 목적은 매니퓰레이터의 정방향 기구학 및 역방향 분석을 통해 방정식을 구한 후 장치를 작동시켜 반복오차를 측정한 후 이 값을 이론값과 비교하여 검증하도록 하였다. (중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bio-Environment Control Conference
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• 2000.10b
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• pp.31-35
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• 2000

현재 대부분의 작물수확에 있어, 노지 재배를 탈피하여 시설재배면적이 증가하고 있다. 현재 원예산업에서 전체 농가 생산액 대비를 보면 95년 기준으로 38.9%를 점하고 있다. 이는 80년대 이후 해마다 증가하였고, WTO시대에 도래하여 세계 속에서 우리 농산물은 경쟁을 해야 할 때다. 원예산업 비중에서, 채소가 25.2%, 과수가 11.2%, 화훼가 2%를 차지하고 있다. 이중 시설채소 재배도 8.5%의 비중을 차지하고 있고, 통계청 자료에 의하면 오이의 재배면적이 97년에 268ha에서 98년에 420ha로 증가하였다. (중략)

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.629-634
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• 1998

Factory-style plant production system aims to produce the standardized horticultural products with high quality and cleanness. In Korea, researches for year-round leaf vegetables production system are in progress and the most of them are focused on environment control. Automating technologies for harvesting, transporting and grading need to be developed. A lettuce harvesting system applicable to the plant factory was studied. It was composed of an articulated robot with a cutter and a gripper, lettuce feeding conveyor and air blower. Success rate of the developed system was 94.7 %. The system carried out harvesting a lettuce smoothly and the harvesting time was about 6 seconds per lettuce. The results showed a feasibility of robotic lettuce harvesting.

• 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.

• 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.