First trials with pepper harvesting robot in Belgian greenhouse

In the past week the Sweeper team has performed tests with their harvest robot in the greenhouse of partner Research Station for Vegetable Production at Sint Katelijne-Waver in Belgium. The data of the tests will be used for improving the vision algorithms for detecting ripe fruits and approach path of the robot.

The goal of the Sweeper project is to develop a robotic harvesting system for sweet peppers (www.sweeper-robot.eu). Several international partners work on this project, each with its own expertise. Wageningen University & Research is mainly responsible for testing and improving the robot, both hardware and software. Research Station for Vegetable Production at Sint Katelijne-Waver, performs research within Sweeper for adaption of the growing system for automatic harvest. From the 28th of March till 31st of March, field tests have been performed in these trials.

Collecting data to improve algorithms
Data was gathered which will be used to improve the maturity detection and increase the robustness of it. Furthermore, a field test has been performed to improve reachability. This means how the robot should approach the fruit to reach it without harming the crop. Improvements will be implemented and in summer new field tests will be performed in a Dutch greenhouse.

Source: Wageningen University & Research