A vision guided robot manipulator for horticultural applications

A feature of many natural nonrigid products is their variability. Tools for handling such materials must cope with this variation which means that accurate positioning of these tools is unnecessary in many cases. Furthermore, indeterminate target position requires the use of sensor guidance so that accuracy is relative to sensor coordinates rather than absolute. These factors combined with the need to work in dirty, moist, unstructured environments, or where food products are handled, a need for hygiene means that a horticultural manipulator specification is very different from its industrial counterpart. Some industrial devices have been adapted and successfully used in research projects, but they rarely meet the requirements of a commercial system particularly with respect to cost. This work has taken a fundamental look at the requirements of a horticultural robot manipulator and specification so that tasks for which technical feasibility has already been established can be achieved in commercial practice