TY - JOUR
T1 - Systems Engineering of Agricultural Robot Design
AU - Edan, Yael
N1 - Funding Information:
I. INTRODUCTION Robots are perceptive machines that can be programmed to perform a variety of agricultural tasks such as transplanting, cultivating, spraying, trimming and selective harvesting. Despite the tremendous amount of robotic applications in industry, very few robots are operational in agriculture production [26]. On contrary to industrial applications which are simple, repetitive, well-defined and known a priori, an agricultural robot must deal with an unstructured, uncertain and varying environment which cannot be predetermined. Thus, fundamental technologies must be developed to solve difficult problems as: Mobile operation in a three-dimensional continuously changing track; Random location of targets (fruits); Variability in fruit size, shape, color, texture and firmness; Delicate products; Variable environmental conditions like illumination (due to clouds, sun direction), leaves occlusion; and Hostile environmental conditions like dust, dirt and extreme temperature and humidity. An important factor in the overall performance of a robotic system is selecting the most appropriate manipulator for the specific task and defining its motions. When selecting a manipulator, the question is not only which type to use, Cartesian, cylindrical, spherical or articulated, but how many and how should they be configured to Manuscript received April 10, 1992; revised August 1, 1993 and Otober 5, 1993. Thies work was supported by Grants No. US-1254-87 and US-1682-89 from BARD, the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. Y. Elan is with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel. G. E. Miles is with the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA. IEEE Log Number 9402292.
PY - 1994/1/1
Y1 - 1994/1/1
N2 - The design of an agricultural robot is a complex task since in addition to the many closely related design parameters that must be determined, the design is highly affected by crop parameters which are uncertain and loosely structured. This paper presents a systems engineering method to evaluate the performance of an agricultural robot by Simulating and comparing different types of robots, number of arms, multiple arm configurations, workspace design and dynamic characteristics. Numerical simulation tools were developed to quantify measures of machine performance such as cycle time and percentage of successful cycles based on an extensive statistical analysis using measured fruit locations and simulated crop parameters. The methodology developed was applied to determine design parameters for a robotic melon harvester. Simulation results indicated that the cartesian robot was faster than the cylindrical robot for the melon harvesting task. Activating two arms in tandem was the fastest configuration evaluated. Simulation provided an important tool for evaluating the multitude of design and crop parameters and for comparing alternatives in a timely manner prior to prototype construction. Through systems engineering design parameters and preferable crop conditions were recommended based on which a prototype robotic melon harvester has been constructed.
AB - The design of an agricultural robot is a complex task since in addition to the many closely related design parameters that must be determined, the design is highly affected by crop parameters which are uncertain and loosely structured. This paper presents a systems engineering method to evaluate the performance of an agricultural robot by Simulating and comparing different types of robots, number of arms, multiple arm configurations, workspace design and dynamic characteristics. Numerical simulation tools were developed to quantify measures of machine performance such as cycle time and percentage of successful cycles based on an extensive statistical analysis using measured fruit locations and simulated crop parameters. The methodology developed was applied to determine design parameters for a robotic melon harvester. Simulation results indicated that the cartesian robot was faster than the cylindrical robot for the melon harvesting task. Activating two arms in tandem was the fastest configuration evaluated. Simulation provided an important tool for evaluating the multitude of design and crop parameters and for comparing alternatives in a timely manner prior to prototype construction. Through systems engineering design parameters and preferable crop conditions were recommended based on which a prototype robotic melon harvester has been constructed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0028483472&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/21.299707
DO - 10.1109/21.299707
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0028483472
SN - 0018-9472
VL - 24
SP - 1259
EP - 1265
JO - IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
JF - IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
IS - 8
ER -