Kale Harvesting
September 1st, 2023
In Short
Kale, rich in fiber and vitamins, can prevent various health issues. In modern agriculture, it's able to achieve year-round, high-frequency harvesting of crops like kale through standardized greenhouse cultivation. Since kale harvesting involves many requirements, such as the harvest height, leaf-picking ratio, and timing, it's intensive and inefficient to use manual labor. Consequently, there is a growing demand for automated harvesting solutions.
Flexiv's kale harvesting solution employs the adaptive robot Rizon with customized end tools. Based on computer vision, high-precision force control, and advanced AI algorithms, it can automate key processes like maturity assessment, pruning position recognition, and flexible cutting and placement. This ensures consistency in the harvesting results while adapting to complex environments.
Precise AI recognition aids in harvesting decisions
Paired with vision modules, this solution autonomously identifies the maturity of kale leaves and precisely locates mature leaves' positions and poses, guiding the robot in cutting. Its vision recognition is minimally affected by natural factors like lighting and can be continually improved by independent data collection and training.
Industrial-grade force control ensures flexible picking
The robot uses a force-searching strategy to locate the cutting position and performs 'human-like' picking. It can adapt kale leaves of different positions, poses and sizes, tolerating various positional errors. The end tool is designed to be slender and compact to minimize potential collision, in combination with the robot's force control capacity, the whole harvesting process ensures no damage or mistaken cutting of non-target leaves.
Compatible with diverse tools for high automation
This solution is highly expandable and compatible with different end tools for harvesting various types of fruits and vegetables. If equipped with AGV/AMR and other mobile platforms, it can automate more complex tasks in standard greenhouses and modern plant factories, achieving 24-hour unmanned automated planting or harvesting.
