Autonomous fruit picking machine: A robotic apple harvester

This paper describes the construction and functionality of an Autonomous Fruit Picking Machine (AFPM) for robotic apple harvesting. The key element for the success of the AFPM is the integrated approach which combines state of the art industrial components with the newly designed flexible gripper. The gripper consist of a silicone funnel with a camera mounted inside. The proposed concepts guarantee adequate control of the autonomous fruit harvesting operation globally and of the fruit picking cycle particularly. Extensive experiments in the field validate the functionality of the AFPM. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.status: publishe