SWEEPER is designed
to operate in a single stem row cropping system, with non-clustered fruits and
little leaf occlusion. The team spearheaded efforts to improve the robot's
ability to detect ripe produce using computer vision, and has played a role in
defining the specifications of the robot's hardware and software interfaces,
focusing on supervisory control activities.
The BGU team
spearheaded efforts to improve the robot's ability to detect ripe produce using
computer vision, and has played a role in defining the specifications of the
robot's hardware and software interfaces, focusing on supervisory control
activities.
Polina Kurtser,
a Ph.D. candidate in the BGU Department of Industrial Engineering and
Management and member of the team, says robotic harvesting will revolutionize
the economics of the agriculture industry and dramatically reduce food waste.
"The
Sweeper picks methodically and accurately," she says. "When it is
fully developed, it will enable harvesting 24/7, drastically reduce spoilage,
cut labor costs and shield farmers from market fluctuations."
Additional
research is needed to increase the robot's work speed to reach a higher harvest
success rate. Based upon these latest results, the Sweeper consortium expects
that a commercial sweet pepper harvesting robot will be available within four
to five years, and that the technology could be adapted for harvesting other
crops.
North America is
the second largest producer of sweet (bell) and chili peppers in the world with
a 31 percent market share. In 2017 Europe accounted for more than half the
world's pepper supply (53.2 percent) with exports valued at $2.7 billion.
SWEEPER is a
partnership between BGU, Wageningen University & Research, and pepper
grower De Tuindershoek BV, in the Netherlands, Umea University in Sweden, and
the Research Station for Vegetable Cultivation and Bogaerts Greenhouse
Logistics in Belgium.
