CN107690969B

CN107690969B - Air suction type apple harvesting robot

Info

Publication number: CN107690969B
Application number: CN201711179770.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 傅隆生; 邬宏; 李�瑞
Original assignee: Northwest A&F University
Current assignee: Northwest A&F University
Priority date: 2017-11-23
Filing date: 2017-11-23
Publication date: 2023-07-21
Anticipated expiration: 2037-11-23
Also published as: CN107690969A

Abstract

An air suction type apple harvesting robot for apples comprises a crawler trolley, an apple storage box, a conveyor belt, an air box, an air suction pipe, a mechanical arm, an air suction head, a fruit-gas separation channel, a fruit receiving channel and a fixing ring. The suction head is moved to the side face of the apple through the mechanical arm, the air box works to enable the apple to be sucked into the suction pipe, then the apple enters the fruit receiving channel through the fruit gas separation channel, and finally the apple is conveyed to the apple collecting box through the conveying belt. The harvesting robot has the advantages of simple structure, low cost and higher market popularization value; the machine vision system is used for identifying and positioning the proper working position, so that the reliability is high; the harvesting principle is novel and practical, and the whole harvesting process almost realizes zero damage to apples; apple harvesting systems are respectively arranged on two sides of the crawler trolley, and the working efficiency is doubled.

Description

Air suction type apple harvesting robot

Technical Field

The patent relates to an apple picking robot, concretely relates to air-aspiration type apple picking robot.

Background

In the whole process of orchard production, the orchard harvesting operation is the most important link, and has the characteristics of strong seasonality and labor intensity, and the labor cost accounts for 35% -45% of the whole production process. With the increasing labor cost in recent years, researchers in many developed countries have conducted extensive and intensive research on fruit mechanized harvesting techniques, and have achieved great results in exploring new methods for fruit harvesting and developing fruit tree harvesting machinery. The robot for picking fruits can solve the problems of ageing of agricultural labor force and insufficient agricultural labor force. The fruit picking robot not only has the function of accurately identifying mature fruits and accurately positioning the mature fruits. Compared with an industrial robot, the working environment of the fruit picking robot is always uncertain and unstructured, and the fruit is soft and easy to damage, so that the characteristics of the fruit picking robot cause a certain obstruction to the wide application of the picking machine. Patent 201410646607.7 proposes an apple picking robot, which adopts a 5-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm to send an end effector to a target position, and picks up apples by the end effector. But this robot adopts single arm work and end effector direct contact apple for work efficiency is lower, more importantly easily causes the loss to a great extent to the apple.

In view of the above, the invention provides an apple harvesting robot with strong reliability, simple structure, high working efficiency and small damage to apples, which is a problem to be solved urgently by industry personnel.

Disclosure of Invention

The utility model provides an air-aspiration type apple harvesting robot comprises crawler trolley 1, apple bin 2, conveyer belt 3, bellows 4, breathing pipe 5, arm 6, suction head 7, fruit gas separation way 8, fruit receiving way 9 and solid fixed ring 10. The robot picking part comprises a mechanical arm 6 and an air suction head 7, so that after a target apple 11 is separated from a branch, the target apple is sucked into an air suction pipe 5 by the air suction head 7, the air suction pipe 5 is fixed with the mechanical arm 6 through a fixed ring 10, and the mechanical arm 6 consists of a waist motor 61, a rack 62, a machine vision system 63, a big arm motor 64, a big arm 65, a small arm motor 66 and a small arm 67; the inner layer of the fruit gas separation channel 8 is made of foam materials 81, the middle layer is made of PVC materials 82, and the outermost layer is wrapped with elastic rubber 83; a concave fruit gas separation channel 8 is arranged at the top end of the air suction pipe 5, namely below the air suction head 7, a part of the fruit gas separation channel 8 is cut off at the bottom of the inner layer and the middle layer on the basis of the air suction pipe 5 to form a channel 85 with the width larger than the maximum diameter of apples, a gap 86 is cut off at the bottom of the outermost elastic rubber 83, and shearing gaps 86 which are perpendicular to the gap 86 along the circumferential direction are arranged on the outer elastic rubber 83 of the cut-off areas of the inner layer and the middle layer, so that the gap 86 can still ensure the air tightness of the air suction pipe 5 under the condition of no stress; the apples 11 can pass through the channel 85 by means of larger impact force after entering from the air suction head 7 and spread the elastic rubber 83 to the fruit receiving channel 9 which is positioned below the air suction pipe 5 and made of foam materials from the gap 86, after the apples 11 leave the air suction pipe 5, the spread elastic rubber 86 automatically closes by means of self properties, so that the separation of the fruit conveying channel and the air suction channel is realized, and the fruit receiving channel 9 is rigidly connected with the air suction pipe 5; the speed of the apples 11 can be controlled in the transportation process by utilizing the inclined conveyor belt 3, the fruit collecting box 2 adopts a layered drawer type structure, and foam materials are padded at the bottom of each layer to prevent apples from being damaged; the damage to apples 11 in the whole process is minimized.

The advantage of this patent: the harvesting robot has the advantages of simple structure, low cost and higher market popularization value; the machine vision system is used for identifying and positioning the proper working position, so that the reliability is high; the harvesting principle is novel and practical, and damage to apples in the whole harvesting process is reduced to the minimum; apple harvesting systems are respectively arranged on two sides of the crawler trolley, and the working efficiency is doubled.

Drawings

This patent is further described below with reference to the drawings and embodiments.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an air-aspiration type apple harvesting robot;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural view of the mechanical arm 6;

fig. 3 is a partial enlarged view of the fruit gas separation channel 8.

The following are the reference numerals of the various components in the figures: the crawler trolley 1, the apple storage box 2, the conveyor belt 3, the bellows 4, the air suction pipe 5, the mechanical arm 6, the air suction head 7, the fruit gas separation channel 8, the fruit receiving channel 9, the fixing ring 10, the apple 11, the waist motor 61, the rack 62, the machine vision system 63, the big arm motor 64, the big arm 64, the small arm motor 66, the small arm 67, the foam material 81, the PVC material 82, the elastic rubber 83, the air suction channel 84, the channel 85 and the gap 86.

Detailed Description

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the specific working process of the patent is as follows: the mechanical arm 6 is fixed on the crawler trolley 1 through a rack 62, after being identified and positioned based on a machine vision system 63, a waist motor 61 controls the rotation function of the robot waist picking device to be adjusted to a proper angle according to a control signal of the robot, a large arm motor 64 drives a large arm 65 to rotate and a small arm motor 66 drives a small arm 67 to rotate to be adjusted to a proper height and distance, an air suction head 7 is sent to the side face of an apple 11, the air suction box 4 sucks air, negative pressure is generated in the air suction pipe 5, and the air suction head 7 sucks the apple 11; the apples 11 and gas enter the air suction pipe 5 through the air suction head, all apples 11 can collide with the bottom of the fruit gas separation channel 8 due to the structure of the fruit gas separation channel 8, so that the apples 11 can pass through the channel 85 by means of larger impact force after entering from the air suction head 7 and prop up the elastic rubber 83 to reach the fruit receiving channel 9 made of foam materials below the air suction pipe 5 through the gap 86, the apples 11 reach the upper surface of the conveyor belt 3 through the fruit receiving channel 9, the speed of the apples 11 in the conveying process on the inclined conveyor belt 3 is reduced and conveyed to the apple collecting box 2, the apple collecting box 2 adopts a layered drawer structure, foam materials are padded at the bottom of each layer of drawer, and the collected apples 11 can be taken out, so that picking and collecting of the apples 11 are completed.

Claims

1. An air suction type apple harvesting robot consists of a crawler trolley (1), an apple storage box (2), a conveyor belt (3), an air box (4), an air suction pipe (5), a mechanical arm (6), an air suction head (7), a fruit-gas separation channel (8), a fruit receiving channel (9) and a fixing ring (10); the robot picking part comprises a mechanical arm (6) and an air suction head (7), so that the target apples (11) are separated from branches and then sucked into an air suction pipe (5) by the air suction head (7), and the air suction pipe (5) is fixed with the mechanical arm (6) through a fixing ring (10); the mechanical arm (6) consists of a waist motor (61), a frame (62), a machine vision system (63), a large arm motor (64), a large arm (65), a small arm motor (66) and a small arm (67); the inner layer of the fruit gas separation channel (8) is made of foam materials (81), the middle layer is made of PVC materials (82), and the outermost layer is wrapped with elastic rubber (83); a concave fruit gas separation channel (8) is arranged at the top end of the air suction pipe (5), namely below the air suction head (7), a part of the fruit gas separation channel (8) is cut off at the bottom of the inner layer and the middle layer on the basis of the air suction pipe (5) to form a channel (85) with the width larger than the maximum diameter of apples, a gap (86) is cut off at the bottom of the elastic rubber (83) at the outermost layer, and shearing gaps (86) perpendicular to the gap (86) along the circumferential direction are arranged on the elastic rubber (83) at the outer layer in the cut-off area of the inner layer and the middle layer, so that the gap (86) can still ensure the air tightness of the air suction pipe (5) under the condition of no stress; the apples (11) can pass through the channel (85) by means of larger impact force after entering from the air suction head (7) and prop up the elastic rubber (83) to reach the fruit receiving channel (9) which is positioned below the air suction pipe (5) and made of foam materials through the gap (86), after leaving the air suction pipe (5), the spread elastic rubber (83) can be automatically closed by means of self properties, so that the separation of the fruit conveying channel and the air suction channel is realized, and the fruit receiving channel (9) is rigidly connected with the air suction pipe (5); the speed of the apples (11) can be controlled in the transportation process by utilizing the inclined conveyor belt (3), and the apple storage box (2) adopts a layered drawer type structure, and foam materials are padded at the bottom of each layer to prevent the apples from being damaged; the damage to apples in the whole process is reduced to the minimum.