Development of A Robotic Fruit Picking End Effector and An Adaptable Controller

Abstract

Abstract. To address rising labor costs in the citrus industry, there have been development trials to adopt robot harvesting techniques. Currently in the United States and abroad, robotic technologies are being developed and adopted for various manufacturing applications. In this study, a prototype end effector was designed to minimize physical damage to harvested fruit during picking tasks. A hybrid multi-gripping apparatus was developed that could grasp an orange firmly and securely using both vacuum and tactile forces using a gripping force controller, which maintained an effective pressure in each vacuum gripper. Additionally, the picking motion combined rotating and pulling the fruit to improve the fruit removal rate and reduced the peel damage known as plugging. Through experiments conducted with Washington Navel Oranges (Citrus sinesis cv. Navel), the developed end effector model validated its fruit picking capability cooperating with robot manipulators.