Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms
Vertical farming has emerged as a sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient food production method, which can improve food security. In most commercial vertical farms, harvesting is carried out manually, which are labor-intensive and costly. Numerous robotic grippers solutions have been develope...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Conference Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2025
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/182866 |
| _version_ | 1826110191783903232 |
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| author | Liu, Jiajun Lai, Wenjie Sim, Bing Rui Tan Ming Rui, Joel Magdassi, Shlomo Phee, Soo Jay |
| author2 | School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Liu, Jiajun Lai, Wenjie Sim, Bing Rui Tan Ming Rui, Joel Magdassi, Shlomo Phee, Soo Jay |
| author_sort | Liu, Jiajun |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Vertical farming has emerged as a sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient food production method, which can improve food security. In most commercial vertical farms, harvesting is carried out manually, which are labor-intensive and costly. Numerous robotic grippers solutions have been developed for harvesting. However, they have limitations like restricted adaptivity, excessive mechanical stress on target, and poor accessibility, hindering their adoption for harvesting. Here, we present a tendon-driven gripper equipped with a capacitance-based contact sensor array. The proposed gripper can grow and twine around the target vegetable and adjust the tightness of its grip based on number of contacts. The proposed gripper can generate 4 to 10 N pulling force on bok choy and can also grip various gourds, leafy and podded vegetables. This work paves the way for harvesting automation in vertical farms. Apart from agriculture field, the smart gripper can also be used to grasp objects with various size, shape and weight in warehouse, and food & beverage industry. |
| first_indexed | 2025-03-09T09:59:48Z |
| format | Conference Paper |
| id | ntu-10356/182866 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-09T09:59:48Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1828662025-03-06T05:50:57Z Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms Liu, Jiajun Lai, Wenjie Sim, Bing Rui Tan Ming Rui, Joel Magdassi, Shlomo Phee, Soo Jay School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering School of Materials Science and Engineering 2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) Singapore-HUJ alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE) Robotics Research Centre Engineering Graspers and other end-effectors Soft capacitive sensor Vertical farming has emerged as a sustainable, efficient, and climate-resilient food production method, which can improve food security. In most commercial vertical farms, harvesting is carried out manually, which are labor-intensive and costly. Numerous robotic grippers solutions have been developed for harvesting. However, they have limitations like restricted adaptivity, excessive mechanical stress on target, and poor accessibility, hindering their adoption for harvesting. Here, we present a tendon-driven gripper equipped with a capacitance-based contact sensor array. The proposed gripper can grow and twine around the target vegetable and adjust the tightness of its grip based on number of contacts. The proposed gripper can generate 4 to 10 N pulling force on bok choy and can also grip various gourds, leafy and podded vegetables. This work paves the way for harvesting automation in vertical farms. Apart from agriculture field, the smart gripper can also be used to grasp objects with various size, shape and weight in warehouse, and food & beverage industry. National Research Foundation (NRF) This work is supported by the Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR) Programme (grant number: 021990-00011) under the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. It is part of the Campus of Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme 2025-03-06T05:50:33Z 2025-03-06T05:50:33Z 2024 Conference Paper Liu, J., Lai, W., Sim, B. R., Tan Ming Rui, J., Magdassi, S. & Phee, S. J. (2024). Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms. 2024 IEEE 7th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 460-466. https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft60065.2024.10521949 979-8-3503-8181-8 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/182866 10.1109/RoboSoft60065.2024.10521949 2-s2.0-85193790191 460 466 en SGSR-021990-00011 © 2024 IEEE. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Engineering Graspers and other end-effectors Soft capacitive sensor Liu, Jiajun Lai, Wenjie Sim, Bing Rui Tan Ming Rui, Joel Magdassi, Shlomo Phee, Soo Jay Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title | Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title_full | Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title_fullStr | Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title_short | Smart grow-and-twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| title_sort | smart grow and twine gripper for vegetable harvesting in vertical farms |
| topic | Engineering Graspers and other end-effectors Soft capacitive sensor |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/182866 |
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