Peduncle Gripping and Cutting Force for Strawberry Harvesting Robotic End-effector Design

S. Vishnu Rajendran, Soran Parsa, Simon Parsons, E. Amir Ghalamzan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Robotic harvesting of strawberries has gained much interest in the recent past. Although there are many innovations, they haven't yet reached a level that is comparable to an expert human picker. The end effector unit plays a major role in defining the efficiency of such a robotic harvesting system. Even though there are reports on various end effectors for strawberry harvesting, but there they lack a picture of certain parameters that the researchers can rely upon to develop new end effectors. These parameters include the limit of gripping force that can be applied on the peduncle for effective gripping, the force required to cut the strawberry peduncle, etc. These estimations would be helpful in the design cycle of the end effectors that target to grip and cut the strawberry peduncle during the harvesting action. This paper studies the estimation and analysis of these parameters experimentally. It has been estimated that the peduncle gripping force can be limited to 10 N. This enables an end effector to grip a strawberry of mass up to 50 grams with a manipulation acceleration of 50 m/s2 without squeezing the peduncle. The study on peduncle cutting force reveals that a force of 15 N is sufficient to cut strawberry peduncle using a blade with a wedge angle of 16.6° at 30° orientation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2022 4th International Conference on Control and Robotics
Subtitle of host publicationICCR 2022
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages59-64
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781665486415, 9781665486408
ISBN (Print)9781665486422
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Mar 2023
Externally publishedYes
Event4th International Conference on Control and Robotics - Virtual, Online, China
Duration: 2 Dec 20224 Dec 2022
Conference number: 4

Conference

Conference4th International Conference on Control and Robotics
Abbreviated titleICCR 2022
Country/TerritoryChina
CityVirtual, Online
Period2/12/224/12/22

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