1. Fruit Grading Robot for Apple, Pear, Peach, and Tomato

2. Robotization in Agriculture
Field management
Commercialized
Under development
Seedling production
Autonomous
tractor
Soil sensor
Plant management
Cutting sticking robot
Grafting robot
Autonomous
rice transplanter
Transplanting robot
Robotic sprayer
Strawberry
harvesting robot
Harvest
Pre-Processing
Autonomous
combine harvester
Leek pre-processing
robot
Grading
Fruit grading robot
Residue process
Shipment
Information

3. Fruit Grading Robot size, color, shape, disease, insect injury
sugar and acid contents, residual chemical
Pear
Apple
Peach
Persimmon
Tomato
Orange

4. Blower x Grading Fruit providing z robot ⑤ ④ Rotation ② ③ ① ⑥ ⑦
Pusher
TV camera
Halfway stage x
Lifter ① ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥ ⑦ ⑧ z
Blower
Fruit providing
robot
Grading
Product Reception
Container Transfer
Bar-code reading
Fruit Grading by Robot
Upper Image Acquisition
Fruit Providing by Robot
Inside Quality Inspection
Fruit Packing
Labeling of Grading and Size
Box Closure and Sealing
Box Transfer
Shipping
Rotation

5. Fruit providing robot and Grading robot
(Two 3 Degrees of Freedom
Cartesian Coordinate Manipulators)
2250
2500
2800
(mm)

6. Action and performance of fruit grading robot
467
Stroke：1165mm
Path
Cycle time of the stroke：4.25 s
　　　　　　Items ③
308
2.7 s （Go）
0.4 s （Initial movement）
1.0 s （Return）
0.15 s （wait） ②
Rotation
100
Performance of grading robot on a condition of
80% 24 fruit containers and 20% 15fruit containers:
12/4.25×3600×0.8=8131 fruits
10/4.25×3600×0.2=1694 fruits　　
Total 9825fruits/hour/robot ④ ①
290
(mm) ⑤
2.7 s
Speed
0.5
0.317
0.683
0.6
0.3
0.3
(s)
1000mm/s
250
317
308 回転
145
145
(mm) ① ② ③ ④ ④ ⑤

7. Image acquisition system
Suction pressure at Blower
　　　Peach：30 kPa
　　　Pear：45 kPa
　　　Apple：45 kPa
PC-A
PC-B
PC-C
PC-D
PC-E
PC-J
Trigger
Robot
Controller
Photo
Interrupter
Bottom and side images
Top images
Image acquisition system
147 85 85 80
Data carrier
(256byte EE ROM)
Suction pad
Fruit conveying tray

8. Image processing
illumination
TV camera
Capture board
Software

9. Direct Lighting(DL) Indirect lighting Direct lighting Reflecting plate
Mirror
Reflecting plate
Light
Diffuser
Light
Camera
Camera
True color
Halation
Whitish color
Indirect lighting
Direct lighting

10. DL (Direct Light) made by Ishii
“DL” is an Ishii-original illumination equipment for image acquisition to make direct lighting possible.
Small power（50W） and high conversion efficiency from electricity into light.
(more than 1000nm)
Fan
PL filter: makes no halation on inspecting part of work in image.
Heat absorption filter: absorbs heat to protect PL filter whose polarizing material is melted at 60℃.
Halogen
lamp
(800～1000nm)
PL filter
Heat absorption filters

11. Color TV Camera
“8300BT3” (separated camera head, CIS Corporation) was used for image acquisition. 6 mm lenses with C mount and PL filters were used for no halation.
Specification
● Single CCD type image sensor
●Flame shutter type
(non-interlace)
●RGB original color filters
●works under 70℃ temp.
●Random trigger shutter
● Variable shutter speed (1/1000s)
●Small, simple, light, and cheap

12. Extracted features from processed image
Items
Processing ①
Size
Size is measured from the maximum length or area
on upper image or calculated volume from several
images. ②
Color
Color value and degree of color distribution are
Measured based on R, G, and B color
component ratio. ③
Shape
Shape is measured as boundary-based
features, region-based features, mathematical
morphology, and so on. ④
Bruise
Bruise is detected by combination of hue, value,
and chroma. +
Internal quality by photo-sensor

13. Information of fruit appearance
Original images　　Color conversion images　 Processed images
Side(1)
Side(2)
Side(3)
Side(4)
Top
Bottom
＋　Internal quality information
(Sugar & acid contents, rot, ….etc.)

15. Shipping quantity of fruits

16. Grading result of pear on Sep.24, 2002

17. 1. Objective and fair judgment on grading operation
Effectiveness of Fruit Grading Robot Introduction (Technology innovation)
1. Objective and fair judgment on grading operation
c.f. Human judgment depends on time, place,
operator’s physical condition….
2. Labor substitution
makes intelligent farming instead of grading and packing
operations.
>>credit and trust of production district
3. Accumulation of product information
　 makes traceability system and precision farming guidance.
(The information have been kept only in operator’s memory so far.)

18. Farming support system based on GIS
Fertilizing
Chemical spraying
Irrigation……
Grading system
Geographical data
Product
Appearance
Internal quality
Data from grading system can be used for precision farming
Accumulation to DB

19. Mapping on GIS data Field information Yield information
Geographical features 環境
Gradient
Field information
Chemical information
Yield information
Quality information
Weather information

20. Product information center
Residue
Soil sensor
Intelligent farming
Precision farming
Carbonization
Fresh
Product
Grading robot
Information oriented field
Operation records
Sensing information
Farming guidance
DSS for farmers
Information added product
Product
information
ID tags
Field information
Agricultural
Cooperative Association
Transport
Soil analysis center
Product information center
Biomass
Re-uses
Variable distribution channel
Marketing route
GIS, DSS
Analysis of soil and chemicals
Quantity and
marketing value
Voice of consumer
BRAND
BRAND
Consumer
Market (Distribution)
New flow of
product and information