Optimized Design of Robotic Arm for Tomato Branch Pruning in Greenhouses

Yuhang Ma, Qingchun Feng (), Yuhuan Sun, Xin Guo, Wanhao Zhang, Bowen Wang and Liping Chen ()
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Yuhang Ma: School of Mechanical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Qingchun Feng: Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Yuhuan Sun: Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Xin Guo: Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Wanhao Zhang: Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Bowen Wang: Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
Liping Chen: School of Mechanical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Aiming at the robotic pruning of tomatoes in greenhouses, a new PRRPR configuration robotic arm consisting of two prismatic (P) joints and three revolute (R) joints was designed to locate the end effector to handle randomly growing branches with an appropriate posture. In view of the various spatial posture of the branches, drawing on the skill of manual pruning operation, we propose a description method of the optimal operation posture of the pruning end effector, proposing a method of solving the inverse kinematics of the pruning arm based on the multi-objective optimization algorithm. According to the spatial distribution characteristics of the tomato branches along the main stem, the robotic arm structure is compact and the reachable space is maximized as the objective function, and a method of optimizing the key geometric parameters of the robotic arm is proposed. The optimal maximum length of the arm’s horizontal slide joint was determined to be 953.149 mm and the extension maximum length of its telescopic joint was 632.320 mm. The verification test of the optimal structural parameter showed that the optimized robotic arm could reach more than 89.94% of the branches in the pruning target area with a posture that meets the pruning requirements. This study is supposed to provide technical support for the development of a tomato pruning robot.

Keywords: agricultural robot; tomato pruning; manipulator; structural optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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