Thesis
Simulation and evaluation of a robotic apple harvesting system
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101420
Abstract
During the past several years, significant effort has been made to develop a robotic system to harvest fresh market apples in a modern apple orchard at Washington State University (WSU). This system has gone through several modifications to achieve enhanced system accuracy, speed, robustness, and reduction of fruit damage and cost. However, due to the short window of apple picking each year and the challenging environment of the orchard, those modifications had limited success in improving the robotic systems performance even with extensive laboratory testing before each field trial. To further assess potential problems, better prepare for the field trial, and make best use of the limited time in the field, in silico testing is needed in addition to laboratory testing. In this work, computer modeling and simulation is used to help identify potential problem in the robotic system, evaluate the effectiveness of the newly made modifications, and aid in both algorithm development and configuration design of the system. By doing simulations with field study data and workspace analysis of the system, we have developed a novel algorithm to improve the reachability of the picking arm. We also concluded that the overlap of the arm's workspace and the fruit space is the key to increase the reachability instead of just increase the volume of arm's workspace.
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Details
- Title
- Simulation and evaluation of a robotic apple harvesting system
- Creators
- Heng Wang
- Contributors
- John H. Miller (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525174101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis