Mobile Fruit Grading Robot (Part 1)

Development of a Robotic System for Grading Sweet Peppers

Abstract

In this study, a mobile fruit grading robot for information-added product in precision agriculture was developed. The prototype robot, which consisted of a manipulator, an end-effector, a machine vision system, and a mobile mechanism, was made. The robot could acquire five fruit images from four sides and the top while its manipulator transported the fruit received from the operator. A preliminary experiment was conducted with 121 samples of colored sweet pepper in 8 varieties, while the samples were divided into four sub-groups by its properties. A fruit mass prediction method was developed by use of the five images. Results indicated that the fruit mass was successfully estimated with projection areas for the respective sub-groups.