Development of a Robot for Spraying a Fruit-set Reagent in a Tomato Cultivation System with Low Node-order Pinching and High Density Planting (Part 2)

—Robot Positioning System and Test of Robot in Greenhouse—

Abstract

We mounted our previously reported spraying robot on a magnetic-tape-guided vehicle positioned via QR codes. To eliminate double-processing of flowers, we gave the robot the capacity to record and compare flower cluster coordinates. We tested robot operation at night in a greenhouse with the 1st flower clusters of tomato. The robot was operated twice, 3 or 4 days apart, to cover the distribution of the flower blooming stage. The total processing time was 30s per flower cluster. The final success rate of spraying ranged from 92% to 100%. The fruit-set rate did not differ significantly between robot spraying and manual spraying ; the accuracy is high enough for practical use.