Autonomous Nutmeg Harvesting Robot

An autonomous robot that identifies mature nutmeg fruits and harvests them from any height with a 5DOF robotic arm and a linear actuation mechanism is developed. The camera processes real time video of the tree and recognizes mature fruits and their location coordinates. This action is controlled by means of a raspberry pi 3 model. The image is processed with the help of OpenCV platform. This information is forwarded onto an Arduino UNO board, which controls the movement of the robotic arm. The arduino board then runs the necessary inverse kinematics algorithms and moves the joints at appropriate angles to reach the target location. Then with the help of a gripper end- effector, the fruit is plucked and put into a container attached to the robot. Once the fruits at a certain height level are completely plucked, the robotic arm platform moves onto a greater height on its own, by means of linear actuator fixed at the bottom. Since the robot is placed at a certain radius from the trunk of the tree, it just reaches for the fruit.