ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE COVER STORY HARVESTING ROBOTS
could make green asparagus cheaper W
hy is asparagus one of the most expensive vegetables in Europe?
Because harvesters have to painstakingly pierce each stalk individually. A robot could change this, and engineers at the Bremen Centre for Mechatronics (BCM) are developing one. It works with harvesting tools, which run on precision rails from HepcoMotion - a specialist in linear guidance systems. Asparagus has been steadily growing in popularity among British consumers, yet for the farmers it means spring time stress. This is because they have to harvest enormous quantities in such a short time – in 2015 according to the Federal Bureau for Statistics, it was 112,100 tons. Work in the fields is arduous and workers have to cut through each individual stalk. It is therefore no wonder that farmers find it more and more difficult to get workers, and because of the cost of wages, are only able to offer asparagus at high prices. Automation is greatly desired, which
incidentally has long been taking place in the cultivation of asparagus. It is true that there are numerous approaches, however up to now no machine has been able to outdo humans when it comes to harvesting. Aware of this need, the green asparagus harvesting robotic system project (Garotics) is developing a harvesting robot for green asparagus. The Bremen Centre for Mechatronics (BCM), the packaging
10 NOVEMBER 2016 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
machine manufacturer Strauss from Buxtehude, and the British agricultural company C. Wright & Son are also working on this project.
THE ROBOT USES A CAMERA SYSTEM TO IDENTIFY WHICH ASPARAGUS STEMS ARE READY FOR HARVESTING The basis of the harvester robot is a chassis with four wheels and a front- wheel drive. In the centre between the front wheels there is a camera system installed, which films the green asparagus stems as it goes past. Unlike white asparagus, green asparagus grows above the ground. Photographic processing software then identifies stalks that are ripe for harvesting. “It wouldn’t make sense to build a type of lawnmower which mows
Guidance system from HepcoMotion allows exact positioning of the harvesting tools
everything down because the stalks grow at different speeds,” explains Sebastian Allers, design engineer at Strauss. “One of the challenges was therefore to implement image processing which can differentiate the different stages of growth.”
The guide systems can withstand the harshest environmental conditions. The V-guide principle ensures Hepco’s bearings are virtually self-cleaning
LINEAR GUIDE RAILS FROM HEPCOMOTION ALLOW EXACT POSITIONING OF THE HARVESTING TOOL Software then guides the coordinates of the ripe samples further to the tool head, which is mounted under a hardened and precision-cut linear guide rail made of stainless steel from HepcoMotion. The tool head can travel across the full vehicle width from side to side on a timing-belt-driven carriage.
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