3 Development of a 3 DOF Robot for Harvesting a Lettuce Using Machine Vision and Fuzzy Logic Control

摘要

PURPOSE: A lettuce harvesting robot with the three degrees of freedom is provided to automatically harvest lettuce with a low cost. CONSTITUTION: A lettuce harvesting robot comprises a three degrees of freedom manipulator(12) moving forward and rearward by an air cylinder on a rotating table. The rotating table is rotated by an AC(alternating current) servo motor. An automatic packing machine(24) is installed in one side of the rotating table and a conveyor(32) is installed in the end of the manipulator with a tray layering plural lettuce ports. An AC motor(34) is installed in one side of the conveyor. Furthermore, the conveyor installs an image processor(36) detecting the area of the lettuce and a height sensor(38) sensing the height of the lettuce for a fuzzy inference. A mechanical view system captures the image of the lettuce and an optical sensor measures the height of the lettuce. The manipulator holds the lettuce and a cutting blade cuts the lettuce while holding the port. Then, the manipulator rotates to transfer the lettuce to the automatic packing machine.