Agricultural robot

In most cases, a lot of factors have to be considered (e.g., the size and color of the fruit to be picked) before the commencement of a task.

Robots like these have many benefits for the agricultural industry, including a higher quality of fresh produce, lower production costs, and a decreased need for manual labor.

[8] They can also be used to automate manual tasks, such as weed or bracken spraying, where the use of tractors and other human-operated vehicles is too dangerous for the operators.

Several factors must be considered in the design of the manipulator, including the task, economic efficiency, and required motions.

The end effector influences the market value of the fruit and the gripper's design is based on the crop that is being harvested.

In an agricultural operation involving grapes in Japan, end effectors are used for harvesting, berry-thinning, spraying, and bagging.

Thus, the design allows for an even distribution of the chemical by making the nozzle move at a constant speed while keeping distance from the target.

For example, in a procedure that required plants to be cut for harvesting, the gripper was equipped with a sharp blade.

Pneumatic actuators are motors which produce linear and rotary motion by converting compressed air into energy.

[citation needed] This is due to concerns over safety, but also over the complexity of picking crops subject to different environmental factors and unpredictability.

[13][15] Because of this, there is a large desire to improve agricultural machinery to make it more cost efficient and viable for continued use.

[14] While robots have already been incorporated in many areas of agricultural farm work, they are still largely missing in the harvest of various crops.

This has started to change as companies begin to develop robots that complete more specific tasks on the farm.

According to Gary Wishnatzki, the co-founder of Harvest Croo Robotics, one of their strawberry pickers currently being tested in Florida can "pick a 25-acre field in just three days and replace a crew of about 30 farm workers".

[15] AgriData is currently developing new technology to do just this and help farmers better determine the best time to harvest their crops by scanning fruit trees.

Benefits also include the general advantages of automation such as in terms of productivity/availability[21] and increasing availability of human resources for other tasks or e.g. making work more engaging.