Getting a Better Grip on Automated Apple Harvesting
A robotic gripper developed by Washington State University researchers is able to gently grab the majority of apples out of a tree without damaging the fruit. The innovative gripper is part of a robotic set-up that the researchers are hoping will someday do fruit picking and other farm chores for Washington farmers to help alleviate ongoing labor shortages.
The researchers recently published their work on the gripper in the proceedings of the IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission.
Weighing about two-thirds of a pound, the gripper uses three cables to move 3D-printed hard plastic and silicone rubber-tipped fingers. The fingers have to be gentle enough that they don’t damage the apples but strong enough to pull the apple off the tree. At a cost of about $30 to produce, the gripper includes a switch to grasp the apple and let go. It was able to successfully grab more than 87.5% of the apples in an orchard without damaging them.
Washington state leads the nation in apple production, and in 2022, the industry contributed more than two billion dollars to the U.S. gross domestic product.
In recent years, researchers have started developing robotic apple harvesting systems, but the ones that have been developed are expensive and complex to use in orchards.
For more, continue reading at news.wsu.edu.
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