A HARVESTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTONOMOUS HARVESTING OF FRUIT

Fecha de publicación: 11/09/2024
Fuente: WIPO "stone fruits"
The invention relates to a harvesting system for autonomous harvesting of fruit, such as for instance pome fruit such as apples or stone fruit, comprising:- at least one collecting subsystem comprising a collecting opening, which collecting opening is connected to a collecting reservoir for collecting and storing harvested fruits, and wherein the collecting opening is autonomously displaceable in a collecting range;- at least one harvesting subsystem comprising a first robotic manipulator with a harvesting end effector configured to harvest a specific fruit in a harvesting range;- a detection subsystem, such as for instance a computer vision subsystem, configured to detect and localize at least in the harvesting range unharvested fruits;- a computer-implemented control configured to control the movements of the at least one harvesting subsystem and the at least one collecting subsystem in coordinated manner and wherein the control is configured to select from the unharvested fruits detected and localized by the detection subsystem in the harvesting range a specific fruit to be harvested and to position the harvesting end effector for harvesting the specific fruit, and wherein the control is also configured to displace the at least one collecting opening to a position close to the specific fruit so that the harvesting end effector can release the specific fruit into the nearby collecting opening after harvesting thereof.The invention also relates to a method for autonomous harvesting of unharvested fruit, such as for instance pome fruit such as apples or stone fruit, with a system according to the invention.