Accurate Position Detecting during Asparagus Spear Harvesting using a Laser Sensor

A serious problem in Japanese agriculture is the aging and shortage of farm laborers. Agricultural robots are expected to solve or alleviate this problem, as well as provide additional information about agricultural products. In this research, we focus on machine vision for an asparagus harvesting robot. Although TV cameras are often used for machine vision in harvesting robots, it is difficult to use them in direct sunlight, due to fluctuations in illumination intensity and color temperature effects of sunlight. So a laser sensor was used. This sensor detected asparagus spears based on their distance from sensor and their length. Total success rate of detection was 75 % of asparagus spears and 71 % of parent asparagus.