Towards an artificial vision-robotic system for tomato identification

In the present paper we developed a simple and affordable vision-based robotic system for the identification of the Euclidean position of red spheres that emulate ripe tomatoes. This is done by using a RGB-D sensor in a fixed position, together with a 5 DOF manipulator. To detect the tomato the sensor considers it as a red blob and then it calculates its center using a point cloud map. The position of the red blob is mapped to the manipulator reference frame using the homogeneous transformation matrix from the camera to the manipulator. The position of the sphere is sent through a micro-controller to drive the manipulator, with the purpose of reaching the sphere's position. Experimental results of the vision-based robotic system are provided, and the system accuracy obtained in localizing and touching the interest object demonstrate to be highly effective, reaching an accuracy of 10/10 in identification and touching the object in ideal environment.