THE AGROBOT PROJECT FOR GREENHOUSE AUTOMATION

The goal of the AGROBOT project is the implementation of a robotic system for agricultural operations. This paper presents the mobile robot with a color stereoscopic vision system and a six degrees of freedom anthropomorphic arm with a gripper/hand for the greenhouse cultivation of tomatoes. The robot will be able to navigate between rows of tomato plants and will perform some important operations as spraying of flowers and fruits and picking of ripe tomatoes. During the navigation phase the vision system controls the moving direction and keeps the vehicle at the center of the free path; the robot will stop in correspondence of each plant to analize it. Obstacle detection is performed with a sensorized bumper. During the stop phase a robotic head is used to explore the plant, after significant objects are identified and localized by the vision system, spraying and manipulation are made. The vehicle is expecially studied for motion in narrow passages and has a particular suspensions arrangement for motion on irregular terrain. The six d.o.f. arm will be able to reach tomatoes in the more suited way for spraying or harvesting. The gripper/hand will be able to grasp tomato fruits both in an upward way and in a horizontal one to permit fruit harvesting with no occlusions for the vision system. The gripper/hand will also have position sensors to control if the object has been really grasped. Head was studied in a way which permits complete visibility of the overall area. The overall system architecture is based on VME bus.