Farm Robot With Scanner Picks Vegetables Off The Vine

The SWEEPER robot is the first sweet pepper harvesting robot in the world demonstrated in a commercial greenhouse. It is designed to operate in a single stem row cropping system, with a crop having non-clustered fruits and little leaf occlusion. Tests were performed in a commercial greenhouse having a 2-row V-type cropping system. Preliminary test results showed that by using a commercial available crop modified to mimic the required conditions, the robot harvests ripe fruits in 24 seconds with a success rate of 62%. Based upon these results, the Sweeper consortium expects that a commercial sweet pepper harvesting robot will be available within 4-5 years. Further research is needed to make the robot work even faster and reach a higher harvest success rate. Next, a commercial viable single-stem row cropping must be developed and the breeding companies must develop crop cultivars that are more suitable for robotic harvesting. The obtained results can also be used for robotic harvesting of other crops.

The SWEEPER robot is the first sweet pepper harvesting robot in the world to be demonstrated in a commercial greenhouse. SWEEPER has been concentrating on harvesting peppers for the past three years, with 1.3 million tonnes being produced annually in Europe. The consortium expects that the outcome of their research will lead to a market introduction of the robot within a few years. The results confirm the leading role of Europe in the field of high-tech agro-robotics research and strengthens the competitiveness of the European greenhouse horticulture sector.

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