ROBOTICS FOR PLANT-PRODUCTION

Applying robotics in plant production requires the integration of robo t capabilities, plant culture, and the work environment. Commercial pl ant production requires certain cultural practices to be performed on the plants under certain environmental conditions. Some of the environ mental conditions are mostly natural and some are modified or controll ed. In many cases, the required cultural practices dictate the layout and materials how of the production system, Both the cultural and envi ronmental factors significantly affect when, where and how the plants are manipulated. Several cultural practices are commonly known in the plant production industry. The ones which have been the subject of rob otics research include division and transfer of plant materials in mic ropropagation, transplanting of seedlings, sticking of cuttings, graft ing, pruning, and harvesting of fruit and vegetables. The plants are e xpected to change their shape and size during growth and development. Robotics technology includes many sub-topics including the manipulator mechanism and its control, end-effector design, sensing techniques, m obility, and workcell development. The robots which are to be used for performing plant cultural tasks must recognize and understand the phy sical properties of each unique object and must be able to work under various environmental conditions in fields or controlled environments. This article will present some considerations and examples of robotic s development for plant production followed by a description of the ke y components of plant production robots. A case study on developing a harvesting robot for an up-side-down single truss tomato production sy stem will also be described.