Abstract
Purpose of ReviewThe world-wide demand for agricultural products is rapidly growing. However, despite the growing population, labor shortage becomes a limiting factor for agricultural production. Further automation of agriculture is an important solution to tackle these challenges.Recent FindingsSelective harvesting of high-value crops, such as apples, tomatoes, and broccoli, is currently mainly performed by humans, rendering it one of the most labor-intensive and expensive agricultural tasks. This explains the large interest in the development of selective harvesting robots. Selective harvesting, however, is a challenging task for a robot, due to the high levels of variation and incomplete information, as well as safety.SummaryThis review paper provides an overview of the state of the art in selective harvesting robotics in three different production systems; greenhouse, orchard, and open field. The limitations of current systems are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.
Highlights
The world’s demand for agricultural products is growing at an unprecedented scale
In the “State of the art in Selective Harvesting” section, we provide an overview of how current selective harvesting robots deal with these challenges
Different from greenhouse crops, orchard crops grow for many years and are relatively sturdy, which reduces the risk on damage of the harvesting robot
Summary
The world’s demand for agricultural products is growing at an unprecedented scale. An estimated 50% increase in agricultural productivity is needed in the 30 years to provide the world population with sufficient food, feed, fuel, and fibers [1]. Different from robots operating in the manufacturing industry that work in highly controlled environment with known artificial objects, agricultural robots need to operate in uncontrolled environments with natural objects These environments give rise to different types of variation. In the “State of the art in Selective Harvesting” section, we provide an overview of how current selective harvesting robots deal with these challenges Limitations of these systems, trends, and future research. Over a period of 4 weeks, the system was evaluated on 262 fruits [6] showing a harvest success rate of 61% in optimal crop conditions and 18% in current commercial conditions, illustrating the need for cultivation systems that are designed for. Great progress has been made in the past years, these initiatives do not yet meet the requirements on success rate and speed
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