Affiliation:
1. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering South China University of Technology Guangzhou P. R. China
2. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore Singapore
3. South China Agricultural University Guangzhou P. R. China
4. Department of Chemical Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing P. R. China
Abstract
AbstractBackgroundThe harvest of fruit can be significantly advanced with the thriving development of intelligent and automated robot technologies. Nevertheless, the picking success rate of tomato fruit still requires improvement as some fruits are unexpectedly damaged inside, which is imperceptible by machine vision. Herein, a modelling method based on modified Voronoi algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the cellular structure of tomato pericarp.ResultsBased on the reconstructed micro‐model, the compression physical behaviour of the pericarp cells is simulated to observe internal local stress and potential damage. It is revealed that the simulation result for pericarps of tomatoes with different ripeness is highly consistent to the experimental tests, which has well validated the feasibility of this modelling and simulation method.ConclusionA Voronoi‐based modelling method is proposed for micro‐reconstruction of tomato pericarp, and the corresponding compression simulation results agree well with the experimental tests. Such result can be utilized as reference to improve the grasping force control for harvesting robot to avoid invisible damage induced by accident overload issue. With the predicting result, superior success rate can be achieved to enhance robot performance. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.
Funder
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province