Studies on Cucumber Harvesting Robot (Part 2)

Manufacture of Hand Based on Physical Properties of Cucumber Plant and Basic Experiment to Harvest

Abstract

Part 1 of this series reported effectiveness of inclined trellis training in which robot could detect and approach fruit easily. In this report, physical properties of cucumber plant were measured in the first place in order to investigate the basic mechanism of harvesting hand. Based on this result, two hands to harvest cucumber cultivated in inclined trellis training were made. The first prototype hand had threefunctions, namely, grasping fruit and detecting and cutting peduncle. From the results of harvesting experiment by using the manipulator reported in part 1, it was observed that the hand sometimes could not harvest fruits when a peduncle was short or positioned near leaf stalk or stem. Therefore, the second prototype hand was made, in which detector and cutting device were improved, and the fruits were harvested satisfactorily by this hand.