Chinese scientists have developed a digital twin greenhouse system to boost the efficiency of tomato harvesting, offering new insights into the intelligent transformation of large-scale precision agriculture.
Led by researchers from the Agricultural Information Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the study titled "Digital twin-driven system for efficient tomato harvesting in greenhouses" was recently published in the journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Chai Xiujuan, chief scientist of the institute's machine vision and agricultural robot innovation team, said the research addresses key challenges in automated tomato harvesting in greenhouses, including limited camera views, fruit occlusion and complex fruiting patterns.
"Efficient and low-damage harvesting remains a major challenge in modern greenhouse tomato production, particularly in dense planting environments," Chai said. "Our study presents a digital twin-driven system for intelligent tomato harvesting."
Using a slidable depth camera mounted on the harvesting robot, the team reconstructed a high-fidelity 3D digital twin of the greenhouse that accurately captures the spatial distribution and growth states of tomatoes.
Read more at China Daily
