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Optimized Design of Robotic Arm for Tomato Branch Pruning in Greenhouses

Author

Listed:
  • Yuhang Ma

    (School of Mechanical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China)

  • Qingchun Feng

    (Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
    National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Yuhuan Sun

    (Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Xin Guo

    (Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
    National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Wanhao Zhang

    (Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Bowen Wang

    (Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China)

  • Liping Chen

    (School of Mechanical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
    Intelligent Equipment Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
    National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China)

Abstract

Aiming at the robotic pruning of tomatoes in greenhouses, a new PRRPR configuration robotic arm consisting of two prismatic (P) joints and three revolute (R) joints was designed to locate the end effector to handle randomly growing branches with an appropriate posture. In view of the various spatial posture of the branches, drawing on the skill of manual pruning operation, we propose a description method of the optimal operation posture of the pruning end effector, proposing a method of solving the inverse kinematics of the pruning arm based on the multi-objective optimization algorithm. According to the spatial distribution characteristics of the tomato branches along the main stem, the robotic arm structure is compact and the reachable space is maximized as the objective function, and a method of optimizing the key geometric parameters of the robotic arm is proposed. The optimal maximum length of the arm’s horizontal slide joint was determined to be 953.149 mm and the extension maximum length of its telescopic joint was 632.320 mm. The verification test of the optimal structural parameter showed that the optimized robotic arm could reach more than 89.94% of the branches in the pruning target area with a posture that meets the pruning requirements. This study is supposed to provide technical support for the development of a tomato pruning robot.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuhang Ma & Qingchun Feng & Yuhuan Sun & Xin Guo & Wanhao Zhang & Bowen Wang & Liping Chen, 2024. "Optimized Design of Robotic Arm for Tomato Branch Pruning in Greenhouses," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:3:p:359-:d:1344725
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