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This invention consists of an autonomous robotic system that was custom made for the grasping and harvesting of delicate vine-ripened berries.
About
According to a USDA report, berries in the US reached a market value of $1.4 billion in 2015. This invention consists of an autonomous robotic system that was custom made for the grasping and harvesting of delicate vine-ripened berries. This system, being completely autonomous, allows the farmer to continue their daily task with no intervention with the robotic system. As demand increases with market value, the greatest risk to the berry industry is a growing shortage of human labor. Existing harvesting machines fabricated from rigid components rely on rough handling of the berry by either cutting the stem of the berry and catching the berry in a basket, which leaves an undesirable component from the vine that must still be removed later. Shaking the berry, or using hard semi-compliant components to pick the berry, inevitably damages the fragile berries during the harvesting process, in-turn limiting the potential for the fresh-market berry industry.
Key Benefits
* The gripper is soft, dexterous for harvesting, yet rigid when affected by external forces * The system is light, compact, and robust due to the tendon actuation. * The system is affordable as the key components can be obtained from commercialized items. * Compared to other tendon harvesters, which cut the stem of the berry, this will allow the ability to bypass post processing, which would require removal of the stem. (Such as typically is done with strawberries in the previous references). * Our platform will be completely autonomous. Once the surrounding territory is pre-programed, the robot will stop at a docking station at night and continue harvesting at pre-programmed times. * Compared to shakers and other larger machines, our robot will be much quieter, which is a serious advantage if you want to harvest at "pick-your-own" style farms, like "Sta-N-Step" mentioned earlier, as you don't want to disrupt the natural feeling of the customers harvesting the berries themselves. I was specifically told this by several customers while we were hand harvesting berries for the damage comparison. * Our software for identifying the berries will provide a framework for future vine-ripened berries; many companies and researchers will be very interested in the software development for this robot. * We figure companies like openbuildspartstore.com will be very interested in taking our tread design and keeping on their website.
Applications
* The gripper design can be used for individuals post back or hip surgery to pick up objects. * This same robot platform, so long as the image processing is manipulated for a different berry type through machine learning, is capable of harvesting many different berries while reducing berry damage using current methods. We could harvest raspberries, strawberries, etc. * The treads for the robot that we will develop have a lot of potential application use. There is a gap in the market for robust metal tread development for small and mediums sized robots and mobile platforms. * The finger design can be used in the medical field for rehabilitation.