• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2012

Purpose: An autonomous robot was developed for harvesting strawberries cultivated in bench-type systems. Methods: The harvest robot consisted of four main components: an autonomous vehicle, a manipulator with four degrees of freedom (DOF), an end effector with two DOFs, and a color computer vision system. Strawberry detection was performed based on 3D image and distance information obtained from a stereo CCD color camera and a laser device, respectively. Results: In this work, a Cartesian type manipulator system was designed, including an intermediate revolute axis and a double driven arm-based joint axis, so that it could generate collision-free motions during harvesting. A DC servomotor-driven end-effector, consisting of a gripper and a cutter, was designed for gripping and cutting the strawberry stem without damaging the strawberry itself. Real-time position tracking algorithms were developed to detect, recognize, trace, and approach strawberries under natural light conditions. Conclusion: The developed robot system could harvest a strawberry within 7 seconds without damage.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.643-650
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• 2018

A self-powered electrochromic device was fabricated on an indium tin oxide-polyethylene naphthalate flexible substrate using a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) as a self-harvesting source; the electrochromic device was naturally bleached and operated under outdoor light conditions. The color of the organic electrochromic polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate, was shifted from pale blue to deep blue with an antimony tin oxide film as a charge-balanced material. Electrochromic performance was enhanced by secondary doping using dimethyl sulfoxide. As a result, the device showed stable switching behavior with a high transmittance change difference of 40% at its specific wavelength of 630 nm for 6 hrs. To improve the efficiency of the solar cell, 1.0 wt.% of Ag NWs in the photoanode was applied to the $TiO_2$ photoanode. It resulted in an efficiency of 3.3%, leading to an operating voltage of 0.7 V under xenon lamp conditions. As a result, we built a standalone self-harvesting electrochromic system with the performance of transmittance switching of 29% at 630 nm, by connecting with two solar cells in a device. Thus, a self-harvesting and flexible device was fabricated to operate automatically under the irradiated/dark conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.1224-1239
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• 2020

This study develops a wearable solar energy harvesting device that absorbs solar energy to generate and store power which can be used during outdoor activities by users even after dark. For this study, a prototype hat for outdoor activities at night was developed after the design of a solar energy harvesting generation, storage, and delivery system was designed that could store energy to light up LEDs. First, the main control board of the system was designed to integrate the charging function, the darkness detection circuit, the battery voltage sensing circuit, and the LED driving circuit in order to reduce bulkiness and minimize the connection structure. It was designed to increase convenience. Second, the system was designed as a wearable fashion product that connected each part with fiber bands and manufacturing it so as to be detachable from the hat. Third, charging and LED operation tests show that the battery is fully charged after 5 hours even in winter when the illuminance value is low. In addition, the LED operation experiment verified the effectiveness of a buffered system that could operate the LEDs for about 3 hours at night.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.87-99
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• 1991

Changes of phycobiliproteins(PBP) quantity and ferredoxin-NADP reductase(FNR) activity were investigated in various light illuminated cyanobacteria, Anabaena variabilis. PBP components were increased under blue light illumination, whereas decreased under red light illumination. PBP contents were twofolds in blue light than in red light. In view of the PBP composition, allophycocyanin(APC) in red light was higher 5.5% and phycoerythrocyanin(PEC) in blue light was higher 2.2% than in white light-illuminated PBP. It was suggested that PBP changes in bule light be the results of regulation of photosysthetic efficiency and protection of photosystem, whereas PBP changes in red light be effected by adaptation of adequate harvesting of light energy in photosystem. Changes of FNR activity were highest in red light, and sequenced lower to blue light and green light. It means that light-dependent production rate of NADP is the highest in red light. The difference of values was larger than that of values in comparison of red and blue light. It was suggested that increasing of FNR activity be due not to the function of isozyme, but to the synthesis of enzymes. Because of NAD/NADP regulation-effect to metabolism, it was considered that FNR activity might influence the metabolism indirectly and explain the probability of regulation in pathways of key enzyme activation. FNR activity was directly proportional to intensity of light. Optimum temperature and pH were about 25℃ and 7.5, respectively.

• 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.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2743-2750
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• 2011

Lanthanide(III)-cored complex as a wavelength conversion material has been successfully designed and synthesized for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells, for the first time, since light with a short wavelength has not been effectively used for generating electric power owing to the limited absorption of these DSSCs in the UV region. A black dye (BD) was chosen and used as a sensitizer, because BD has a relatively weak light absorption at shorter wavelengths. The overall conversion efficiency of the BD/WCM device was remarkably increased, even with the relatively small amount of WCM added to the device. The enhancement in $V_{oc}$ by WCM, like DCA, could be correlated with the suppression of electron recombination between the injected electrons and $I_3{^-}$ ions. Furthermore, the short-circuit current density was significantly increased by WCM with a strong UV light-harvesting effect. The energy transfer from the Eu(III)-cored complex to the $TiO_2$ film occurred via the dye, so the number of electrons injected into the $TiO_2$ surface increased, i.e., the short-circuit current density was increased. As a result, BD/WCM-sensitized solar cells exhibit superior device performance with the enhanced conversion efficiency by a factor of 1.22 under AM 1.5 sunlight: The photovoltaic performance of the BD/WCM-based DSSC exhibited remarkably high values, $J_{sc}$ of 17.72 mA/$cm^2$, $V_{oc}$ of 720 mV, and a conversion efficiency of 9.28% at 100 mW $cm^{-2}$, compared to a standard DSSC with $J_{sc}$ of 15.53 mA/$cm^2$, $V_{oc}$ of 689 mV, and a conversion efficiency of 7.58% at 100 mW $cm^{-2}$. Therefore, the Eu(III)-cored complex is a promising candidate as a new wavelength conversion coadsorbent for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells to improve UV light harvesting through energy transfer processes. The abstract should be a single paragraph which summaries the content of the article.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.644-648
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• 2007

Exposure of algae or plants to irradiance from above the light saturation point of photosynthesis is known as high light stress. This high light stress induces various responses including photoinhibition of the photosynthetic apparatus. The degree of photoinhibition could be clearly determined by measuring the parameters such as absorption and fluorescence of chromoproteins. In cyanobacteria and red algae, most of the photosystem (PS) II associated light harvesting is performed by a membrane attached complex called the phycobilisome (PBS). The effects of high intensity light (1000-4000 ${\mu}mol$ photons $m^{-2}s^{-1}$) on excitation energy transfer from PBSs to PS II in a cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis were studied by measuring room temperature PC fluorescence emission spectra. High light (3000 ${\mu}mol$ photons $m^{-2}s^{-1}$) stress had a significant effect on PC fluorescence emission spectra. On the other hand, light stress induced an increase in the ratio of PC fluorescence intensity of PBS indicating that light stress inhibits excitation energy transfer from PBS to PS II. The high light treatment to 3000 ${\mu}mol$ photons $m^{-2}s^{-1}$ caused disappearance of 31.5 kDa linker polypeptide which is known to link PC discs together. In addition we observed the similar decrease in the other polypeptide contents. Our data concludes that the Spirulina cells upon light treatment causes alterations in the phycobiliproteins (PBPs) and affects the energy transfer process within the PBSs.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.69-80
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• 1997

Effects of light on leaf senescence of Phaseolus vulgaris were investigated by measuring the disassembly of chlorophyll-protein complexes in detached leaves which had been kept in the dark or under light. The loss of chlorophyll accompanied by degradation of chlorophyll-protein complexes. PSI (photosystem I) complex containing LHCI (light harvesting complex of PSI) apoproteins was rapidly decreased after the early stage of dark-induced senescence. RC(reaction center)-Core3 was slightly increased until 4 d and slowly decreased thereafter. As disassembly of LHCII trimer progressed after the late stage of senescence, there was a steady increase in the relative amount of SC(small complex)-2 containing LHCII monomer. On the other hand, white and red light adaptation caused the structural stability of chlorophyll-protein complexes during dark-induced senescence. Particularly, red light was more effective in the retardation of LHCII breakdown than white light, whereas white light was slightly effect in protecting the disassembly of PSI complex compared to red light. These results suggest, therefore, that light may be a regulatory factor for stability of chlorophyll-protein complexes in the senescent leaves.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.341-343
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• 2002

Bacteriochlorophyll(BChl)-c containing species of green sulfur photosynthetic bacterium Chlorobium (ChI.) vibrioforme, which has BChl-d mainly, was detected. We obtained colonies on agar plates by spreading the liquid culture of ChI. vibrioforme f. sp. thiosulfatophilum strain NCIB 8327 which contained the high ratio of BChl-c/BChl-d, and transferred each colony into a new liquid medium. These cultures after growing were found to be classified into two categories. One possessed BChl-d as a light-harvesting pigment and the other did BChl-c. No colonies examined here contained both BChls-d and c. Therefore, the presence of both BChls-d and c in our cultures of ChI. vibrioforme was ascribed to the coexistence of two different cells which had BChl-d and c as the chlorosomal pigment, respectively. The change of pigment composition observed in our liquid cultures can be thus explained by the difference of growth rates between two kinds of cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.2093-2098
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• 2013

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to determine the ground state geometries of indigo and new design dyes (IM-Dye-1 IM-Dye-2 and IM-Dye-3). The time dependant density functional theory (TDDFT) was used to calculate the excitation energies. All the calculations were performed in both gas and solvent phase. The LUMO energies of all the dyes were above the conduction band of $TiO_2$, while the HOMOs were below the redox couple (except IM-Dye-3). The HOMO-LUMO energy gaps of new design dyes were smaller as compared to indigo. All new design dyes were strongly red shifted as compared to indigo. The improved light harvesting efficiency (LHE) and free energy change of electron injection ${\Delta}G^{inject}$ of new designed sensitizers revealed that these materials would be excellent sensitizers. The broken coplanarity between the benzene near anchoring group having LUMO and the last benzene attached to TPA unit in all new design dyes consequently would hamper the recombination reaction. This theoretical designing will the pave way for experimentalists to synthesize the efficient sensitizers for solar cells.