Robotic Grasping of Harvested Tomato Trusses Using Vision and Online Learning

Luuk Van Den Bent*, Tomás Coleman, Robert Babuška

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Currently, truss tomato weighing and packaging require significant manual work. The main obstacle to automation lies in the difficulty of developing a reliable robotic grasping system for already harvested trusses. We propose a method to grasp trusses that are stacked in a crate with considerable clutter, which is how they are commonly stored and transported after harvest. The method consists of a deep learning-based vision system to first identify the individual trusses in the crate and then determine a suitable grasping location on the stem. To this end, we have introduced a grasp pose ranking algorithm with online learning capabilities. After selecting the most promising grasp pose, the robot executes a pinch grasp without needing touch sensors or geometric models. Lab experiments with a robotic manipulator equipped with an eye-in-hand RGB-D camera showed a 100% clearance rate when tasked to pick all trusses from a pile. 93% of the trusses were successfully grasped on the first try, while the remaining 7% required more attempts.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2024
PublisherIEEE
Pages13947-13953
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)979-8-3503-8457-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2024 - Yokohama, Japan
Duration: 13 May 202417 May 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
ISSN (Print)1050-4729

Conference

Conference2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2024
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityYokohama
Period13/05/2417/05/24

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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