Japan develops tomato-harvesting robot

Automatic Tomato Harvesting Robot of Squse, a company that engages in system integration and development of industrial robots has developed the harvesting robot with aid from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). The company is testing the robot in Nagasaki Prefecture and Hokkaido.

 

With a camera and range image sensor attached to each of the main body and the tips of the two robotic arms, the robot recognizes the bunches and fruits of tomatoes. When it detects a targeted fruit, two units of the “UR5” multi-joint robot, which was developed by Denmark-based Universal Robots A/S, function as arms and collect the fruit. At this point, the time it takes from searching to harvesting is 20 seconds.

 

“Even 20 seconds is slow as operation time,” Squse said. “We want to reduce it to 10 seconds or faster, specifically about six seconds, eventually.”

 

The total mass of the exhibited robot was about 400 kg. It is powered by a lead-acid battery. To reduce weight and size, the company plans to employ a sheet-type lithium-ion battery in the future.

 

Squse exhibited a prototype of the robot, and it is currently developing a second prototype. The company plans to reduce the size of the main body and replace the arms with the N-Jiku Robot, which it developed with help from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

 

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