On path planning of the root cutting blade for an automatic spinach harvester

Abstract

An automatic harvester for spinach has been developing by our research group. Path planning for its root cutting blade moving under the ground is very important for successful harvesting. An effective path generation method which can compensate bad influences from uneven ground has been proposed, but it provides somewhat large variation in depth of the path. In the present paper, we propose a modified path which provides small variation in depth of the path and show verification results by experiments in field.