Related papers: A vision-based robotic system for precision pollin…
This research presents a novel, robotic pollination system designed for targeted pollination of apple flowers in modern fruiting wall orchards. Developed in response to the challenges of global colony collapse disorder, climate change, and…
The US apple industry relies heavily on semi-skilled manual labor force for essential field operations such as training, pruning, blossom and green fruit thinning, and harvesting. Blossom thinning is one of the crucial crop load management…
Robotic pollinators not only can aid farmers by providing more cost effective and stable methods for pollinating plants but also benefit crop production in environments not suitable for bees such as greenhouses, growth chambers, and in…
Early-stage identification of fruit flowers that are in both opened and unopened condition in an orchard environment is significant information to perform crop load management operations such as flower thinning and pollination using…
Due to labor shortage and rising labor cost for the apple industry, there is an urgent need for the development of robotic systems to efficiently and autonomously harvest apples. In this paper, we present a system overview and algorithm…
Effective pollination is a key challenge for indoor farming, since bees struggle to navigate without the sun. While a variety of robotic system solutions have been proposed, it remains difficult to autonomously check that a flower has been…
This study presents Flower Pose Estimation (FloPE), a real-time flower pose estimation framework for computationally constrained robotic pollination systems. Robotic pollination has been proposed to supplement natural pollination to ensure…
Robotic pollination offers a promising alternative to manual labor and bumblebee-assisted methods in controlled agriculture, where wind-driven pollination is absent and regulatory restrictions limit the use of commercial pollinators. In…
Manual pruning is labor intensive and represents up to 25% of annual labor costs in fruit production, notably in apple orchards and vineyards where operational challenges and cost constraints limit the adoption of large-scale machinery. In…
In this paper, we present a computer vision-based approach to measure the sizes and growth rates of apple fruitlets. Measuring the growth rates of apple fruitlets is important because it allows apple growers to determine when to apply…
Following a global trend, the lack of reliable access to skilled labour is causing critical issues for the effective management of apple orchards. One of the primary challenges is maintaining skilled human operators capable of making…
Insects are the most important global pollinator of crops and play a key role in maintaining the sustainability of natural ecosystems. Insect pollination monitoring and management are therefore essential for improving crop production and…
Apple is one of the remarkable fresh fruit that contains a high degree of nutritious and medicinal value. Hand harvesting of apples by seasonal farmworkers increases physical damages on the surface of these fruits, which causes a great loss…
This research was a part of a project that developed mobile robots that performed targeted pollen spraying and automated harvesting in pergola structured kiwifruit orchards. Multiple kiwifruit detachment mechanisms were designed and field…
The advancement of agricultural robotics holds immense promise for transforming fruit harvesting practices, particularly within the apple industry. The accurate detection and localization of fruits are pivotal for the successful…
We present an end-to-end computer vision system for mapping yield in an apple orchard using images captured from a single camera. Our proposed system is platform independent and does not require any specific lighting conditions. Our main…
To optimize fruit production, a portion of the flowers and fruitlets of apple trees must be removed early in the growing season. The proportion to be removed is determined by the bloom intensity, i.e., the number of flowers present in the…
Labor shortages in fruit crop production have prompted the development of mechanized and automated machines as alternatives to labor-intensive orchard operations such as harvesting, pruning, and thinning. Agricultural robots capable of…
Apples are among the most widely consumed fruits worldwide. Currently, apple harvesting fully relies on manual labor, which is costly, drudging, and hazardous to workers. Hence, robotic harvesting has attracted increasing attention in…
Vision perception and modelling are the essential tasks of robotic harvesting in the unstructured orchard. This paper develops a framework of visual perception and modelling for robotic harvesting of fruits in the orchard environments. The…