Vision system simplifies robotic fruit picking

Robotic apple picker relies on a camera inside the gripper and off-the-shelf components and software.

In the last few years, Belgian farmers have experienced problems with finding reliable seasonal workers for harvesting choice fruit, including apples. In response to this problem, the Automation Centre for Research and Education (ACRO) Institute developed a robotic apple harvester. ACRO is a spin-off company and technical consultant to the Catholic University College of Limburg, Belgium, and also provides PLC and machine-vision technical training and research to the European community. ACRO is partially funded by the Belgian government.

For the full story