Projects per year
Abstract
The wide-scale adoption of selective apple harvesting robots is yet to be seen, due to their strict requirement of well-manicured canopies to perform reliably. However, maintaining this standard of canopy is labour and resource-intensive, and an unsustainable practice for farmers in the long term who are already burdened with labour shortages. Without a complete planner and intelligent decision-making, a robotic harvesting platform would struggle to adapt to, and navigate in even typical canopy environments. In this work, we introduce the Monash Apple Retrieving System (MARS), a selective apple harvesting platform that is capable of navigating and harvesting apples in complex canopy environments without the need for canopy simplification. Utilising a three-tier planning process, MARS is able to generate gentle, collision-free harvesting trajectories in complex and unstructured canopies. Extensive trials were conducted over the 2021 and 2022 apple harvesting seasons in Australia, where MARS achieved a harvesting success rate of 62.8% at a cycle time of 9.18 s per apple, with negligible damage to the fruit. Performance increased to 70.8% success rate and 7.91 s of cycle time under ideal visibility conditions. Although performance can be further enhanced with canopy simplification and hardware upgrades, the reported results were achieved under realistic canopy conditions where very limited attempts were made to modify the canopy to create idealistic conditions for robotic harvesting. This baseline performance is promising for farmers who are wanting to utilise robotic harvesting, but do not have the resources to maintain well-manicured canopies. By lowering strict canopy requirements for robotic harvesting, we can improve accessibility of this technology to more farmers who are struggling with labour shortages around the world.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 108164 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Computers and Electronics in Agriculture |
| Volume | 213 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2023 |
Projects
- 1 Finished
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ARC Research Hub for Nanoscience-based Construction Material Manufacturing
Duan, W., Kitipornchai, S., Sirivivatnanon, V., Setunge, S., Chen, C., Samali, B., Law, D., Li, C., Tao, Z., San Nicolas, R., Li, W., Sui, T., Arena, P., Van Deventer, J., Yeo, R., O'Donnell, B., Martin, B., Pascoe, S., Davies, R., Koay, Y., Brown, J., Tonner, F., Shah, S., Wang, C., Thompson, W., White, C., Darwell, S., Wu, X., Wang, Q., Yang, X., Wee, S., Zhang, L., Zhang, L., Yang, J., Li, R., Buntine, C., Blair, E., Kidd, P., Caprani, C., Zhao, J., Huang, H., Zhang, Q., Wu, D., Chen, Y., Yellishetty, M., Sainsbury, B., Andrews-Phaedonos, F., Young, W., Quek, S. T., Bao, X., Heidarpour Esfarjani, A., Lai, C., Hu, J., Yong, H., Robert, D., Yu, T., Ren, T., Remennikov, A., Holt, B., Lu, Y., De Silva, P., Soe, K., Gao , W., Li, G., Cai, J. G., Muzzin, M., Song, T., Liu , X., Gaimster, R., Vessalas, K., Shrestha, R., Li, J., Thomas, P., Rahme, M., Khatri, R., Gowripalan, N., Nejadi, S., Wang, H., Yin, B., Jung, K., Tang, M., Tang, C., Mutton, P., Guo, H., Paradowska, A. M., Kan, Q., Kang, G., Bao, Q., Zou, R., Tam, V. W. Y., Keegan, A., Zhuge, Y., Ghodrat, M., Rocker, P., Le, K. N., Alam, M. M., Yu, A., Yan, W., Tan, M. Y., Wang, Y., Hu, Y., Christodoulou, C., Nairn, J., Sagoe-Crentsil, K. & Chang, B.
AIBuild Pty Ltd, Pangang Group Research Institute Co Ltd, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) , South Australian Water Corporation (trading as SA Water), TriTech Group Limited, Nanomen Solutions Ltd, Advanced Functional Materials Pty Ltd, Bao Engineering Pty Ltd , Rocket C Pty Ltd, Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy (Queensland), Cleantech Energy Australia Pty Ltd, Australian Catholic University, Australian Research Council (ARC), Mechsoft (Dalian) Co Ltd, Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Thor Tech Pty Ltd, Nu-Rock Technology Pty Ltd, Cement & Concrete Association of New Zealand, Solar E Pty Ltd, UBIQ Pty Ltd, Nanjing Fenghui Composite Material Co. Ltd, Ironclad Mining Machinery Pty Ltd, University of Wollongong, Wuhan Zhihe Geotechnical Engineering Co. Ltd, Swinburne University of Technology, Aurecon Australasia Pty Ltd , Canstruct Pty Ltd, Lindenbaum Pty Ltd, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Roads and Maritime Services (New South Wales), Chongqing Ideal Technology Co Ltd, Cement Australia Pty Ltd, Jiangsu Shisong New Material Technology Co Ltd, Estate Baron Crowdinvest Pty Ltd, Shanghai Boiler Works Co Limited, Huadian Electric Power Research Institute Company Limited, Hubei Yihua Group Limited Liability Company, Western Sydney University (WSU), Cement, Concrete and Aggregates Australia, Zeobond Research Pty Ltd, Fortis Adhesives and Coatings Pty Ltd, Centre For Pavement Excellence Asia Pacific Ltd, Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) Group, Energy Australia Pty Ltd, AGL Loy Yang Pty Ltd, Adbri Masonry Pty Ltd, Roads Corporation (trading as VicRoads) (Victoria) , CSR Building Products Limited, Monash University, University of Queensland , University of Melbourne, University of Western Australia, University of Technology (UTS) Sydney, RMIT University, Deakin University, Southwest Jiaotong University, ARUP Group (Australia), Department of Finance (Western Australia), Airey Taylor Consulting Pty Ltd, University of South Australia, Monash University – Internal University Contribution, Princeton University, Northwestern University, National University of Singapore, CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Sinoma International Engineering Co Ltd, Argos FRP Pty Ltd
16/12/16 → 31/12/23
Project: Research