Robots Harvest and Transport Agricultural Products Without Human Intervention

Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials System Development

A system has been developed in which robots demonstrate teamwork to harvest and transport facility crops without human assistance.

On the 9th, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials announced that the research team led by Chief Researcher Choi Taeyong of the Robot Mechatronics Research Lab at the AI Robot Research Headquarters developed a multi-robot system for harvesting horticultural crops that can automatically harvest crops and autonomously transport them to the loading area, assisting humans in the agriculture field where labor shortages are severe.

Facility horticultural crop harvesting robot developed by Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM). Photo by KIMM

The multi-robot system for harvesting horticultural crops, composed of harvesting robots and transport robots, is expected to help solve the difficulties faced by agricultural fields where severe labor shortages have led to crops being left unharvested and plowed under. By fully automating the harvesting and transport processes of the entire horticultural facility workflow, it demonstrated the potential to unmanned various labor-intensive tasks in agricultural fields beyond just harvesting.

The agricultural environment is complex and highly variable, making the required technology level very high for robot application. This is why research on robots for harvesting in facility horticulture has remained at an early stage. Existing robotic technologies for horticultural crop harvesting have been limited to implementing single-crop harvesting functions. The Dutch SWEEPER robot was developed solely to harvest paprika, and in Korea, robots dedicated to harvesting strawberries, cucumbers, and melons have been developed.

The multi-robot system for horticultural crop harvesting developed by the research team goes beyond simple harvesting by establishing multi-robot-based harvesting-transport linkage technology, enabling automation of crop harvesting operations throughout the entire horticultural facility. It consists of crop harvesting robots that actually harvest crops and transport robots that carry the harvested crops to the rear. There is no limit to the number of robots, allowing multiple harvesting robots to harvest crops simultaneously and multiple transport robots to carry them to the rear.

In particular, the harvesting robot applies advanced mechanical technology and artificial intelligence technology from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials to recognize crop information in facility horticulture environments with high speed and precision. Using a robotic arm and a high-power robotic hand developed in-house, it can harvest tough crops without difficulty. Additionally, the transport robot can perform precise autonomous driving in facility horticulture environments. The harvesting robot applies AI technology to recognize the position and posture of crops accurately, and the recognized crops are harvested using a specially manufactured robotic hand for harvesting. The harvested crops are temporarily stored in the harvesting robot, and when the box is sufficiently filled, the transport robot is called to transfer the crops. The research team succeeded in developing a system capable of harvesting crops with over 90% crop recognition rate and 80% efficiency compared to humans, assuming 24-hour operation.

Chief Researcher Choi Taeyong stated, "The multi-robot system for horticultural crop harvesting developed this time is the beginning of research to solve the labor shortage problem in rural areas that are disappearing," adding, "We will continue research to apply it not only to indoor facility horticulture but also to various manual tasks in outdoor environments such as orchards by enhancing performance and reinforcing functions."