Robotic fruit harvester
First Claim
1. A system for harvesting fruits from a tree comprising:
- (a) mapping means having an aperture with positions of fruits on the tree relative to said aperture defined by horizontal and vertical coordinates thereof, said mapping means for electronically mapping said coordinates of fruits on the tree within said aperture;
(b) storage means for storing electrical signals representative of each of such mapped horizontal and vertical coordinates;
(c) extensible arm means adapted to be extended through said aperture at each of said horizontal and vertical coordinates;
(d) fruit seeking means disposed at a distal end of said extensible arm means for optically locating a fruit and for controlling the extension and position of said arm means to contact the located fruit; and
(e) fruit severence means collocated with said fruit seeking means including fruit contact sensing means, said severence means controlled by said fruit contact sensing means to grasp a sensed fruit upon contact therewith and to sever the grasped fruit from its stem.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for harvesting fruit, such as citrus fruit. A modularized housing is provided with a mechanism for disposing the housing opposite a picking zone of a tree, with an open side thereof defining a picking aperture. The picking zone is illuminated, and an electronic camera at the geometric center of the housing having a 256×256 sensor array records the picking zone. Electronic processing circuits identify the X-Y coordinates with respect to the aperture of each identified fruit with color discrimination means utilized for such identification. The X-Y coordinates are stored in memory. An extensible picking arm is then placed with a pivot at the geometric center and sequentially extended through each stored X-Y coordinate. An optical seeker, having a light source and a quadrature optical detector, disposed at the distal end of the arm detects a fruit in the path of the extending arm and controls the movement of the arm to cause a severance head on the arm to contact the fruit. A set of grippers are then closed onto the fruit and stem to separate the fruit. An articulated collection arm follows the picking arm and collects the picked fruit in a cup and subsequently drops the fruit into a collection system.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A system for harvesting fruits from a tree comprising:
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(a) mapping means having an aperture with positions of fruits on the tree relative to said aperture defined by horizontal and vertical coordinates thereof, said mapping means for electronically mapping said coordinates of fruits on the tree within said aperture; (b) storage means for storing electrical signals representative of each of such mapped horizontal and vertical coordinates; (c) extensible arm means adapted to be extended through said aperture at each of said horizontal and vertical coordinates; (d) fruit seeking means disposed at a distal end of said extensible arm means for optically locating a fruit and for controlling the extension and position of said arm means to contact the located fruit; and (e) fruit severence means collocated with said fruit seeking means including fruit contact sensing means, said severence means controlled by said fruit contact sensing means to grasp a sensed fruit upon contact therewith and to sever the grasped fruit from its stem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 36, 37)
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11. Apparatus for harvesting fruit from fruit trees comprising:
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a module having an open face thereof, said face defining a picking zone aperture, said module adapted to be disposed with said aperture opposing a face of a fruit-bearing tree; a fruit mapping camera disposed at a geometric center of said module opposite said aperture, said camera having its optical axis coincident with a center line of said aperture and normal to said aperture, said camera producing a video signal representative of the locations of fruits in said tree with respect to the horizontal and vertical coordinates of said aperture; electronic processing means, said processing means adapted to receive and electronically store the horizontal and vertical coordinates of each located fruit; an extensible fruit picking arm means having a proximal end thereof disposable at said geometric center, including means for positioning said arm means along a line from said geometric center through each of said horizontal and vertical coordinates of said aperture; fruit seeker means disposed at a distal end of said arm means, said seeker means cooperating with said electronic control means to extend said arm means along said line and to adjust the horizontal and vertical position thereof to align the center line of said arm means with a fruit to be picked; gripper means disposed concentrically at the distal end of said arm means, said gripper means controlled by said electronic control to grasp a located fruit; and gripper twist and bend means for bending the stem of a grasped fruit and twisting said grasped fruit, said eletronic control means simultaneously retracting said arm means to thereby separate said fruit from its stem. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A fruit harvesting and collection system comprising:
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trailer means having an essentially flat bed and adapted to be moved along a row of fruit trees; at least one vertical support means disposed on said trailer means; a picking module supported by said support means and movable vertically on said support means, said module having an open face thereof defining a picking zone aperture and adapted to be disposed with said aperture opposing an area of a tree; fruit-locating means disposed in said module for determing the location of fruits within said picking zone; fruit-picking means associated with said fruit-locating means, said fruit picking means having an extensible arm with a fruit seeking means disposed at its distal end adapted to be extended through said picking zone aperture for optically locating a fruit and controlling the extension and position of said extensible arm for contacting and picking a located fruit; gutter means attached to said module for receiving a picked fruit; fruit-collection means associated with said fruit-picking means for receiving a picked fruit and transporting same to said gutter means; and chute means disposed between said gutter means and said flat bed for transporting picked fruit from said gutter means to said flat bed. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38)
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39. A method for harvesting fruit from a tree in which said method utilizes an electronic camera, an extensible picking arm, and a fruit seeking, grasping, and severing head at the distal end of the picking arm comprising the steps of;
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(a) defining a picking zone in a vertical plane adjacent a fruit bearing tree, the zone having a geometric center line perpendicular to the plane; (b) temporarily disposing the electronic camera with its line of sight alinged with the geometric center line of the picking zone; (c) exposing the picking zone to the electronic camera; (d) identifying the presence of each fruit within the picking zone from the electronic image obtained from the electronic camera; (e) determining a pair of horizontal and vertical coordinates with respect to the picking zone for each identified fruit within the picking zone from the electronic image obtained from the electronic camera; (f) storing the determined horizontal and vertical coordinates in an electronic memory; (g) substituting the picking arm for the camera with a proximal end thereof along the geometric center line and at the prior position of the camera; (h) sequentially controlling the picking arm to extend into the tree through each pair of stored horizontal and vertical coordinates of the picking zone and toward each identified fruit; (i) sensing the location of each fruit along the line of extension of the picking arm by means of the fruit seeking, grasping, and severing head; and (j) stopping the head at the location of each fruit, grasping the fruit, and severing the fruit from the tree by means of the grasping and severing head.
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Specification