autonomous orchard vehicles for specialty crops production
TRANSCRIPT
Autonomous Orchard Vehicles for Specialty Crops Production
Marcel Bergerman
CMU Robotics Institute
2
Specialty Crops
• Fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, nursery crops, and floriculture
• US market vale (2007): $48 billion (corn = $39 billion)
• Crop value/acre is 1-3 orders of magnitude larger than field crops
1 acre of corn = ~$500 1 acre of nursery trees = ~$100k
3
Challenge 1: Labor Seasonality
4
Challenge 2: Labor Cost
Pruning & Thinning Labor
24%
Harvest Labor 25%
General Farm Labor
9%
Chemical & Fertilizer
16%
Fuel/Equipment/Repair
9%
Other 17%
Gallardo, K. et al. 2009 Cost Estimates of
Establishing and Producing Gala Apples
in Washington. WSU Fact Sheet FS005E
Variable costs to
produce Gala apples
in WA state.
Labor = 58%
5
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's
Apple Trees/Acre in Washington State
“traditional” orchard
“modern” orchard
50% of all WA orchards 35% 15%
production costs fruit production
management and infrastructure costs
The Opportunity
6
Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops
Automation Reconfigurable Mobility
Accurate Positioning Harvest Assist
Crop Intelligence Disease Prediction Insect Monitoring
Crop Yield Estimation On-the-Go Caliper & Counter
Technology Adoption Socioeconomic Analyses
Outreach
http://www.cascrop.com
7
Autonomous Prime Movers
• Goal: automate/augment orchard management and production operations – Data collection at the fruit, tree, block, and farm levels
– Mowing and spraying
– Pruning, thinning, training, harvesting
• APM: Family of reconfigurable, retaskable vehicles
8
Autonomous mowing Autonomous selective spraying
9
Workers using autonomous orchard vehicle as “bin dog” during harvest in Biglerville, PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46t37LCBJoc
10
11
Tying apple trees while operating the platform (one-man operation) Hollabaugh Bros. Orchards, Biglerville, PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fGI9W16sVI
12 Thinning green fruit at Allan Bros. Orchards, Prosser, WA
13
Placing pheromone dispensers at Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center, Biglerville, PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyMZwVoObeA
14
Pennsylvania Preliminary Time Trials
Under the Hood
16
Control Modes
TRANSIT • Vehicle manually controlled from its
storage to its deployment location • Speeds of 10-15 mph
SCAFFOLD • Vehicle carries workers while they
prune, thin, and maintain trees • Speeds of 0.1-1 mph • Intuitive user interface • Obstacle detection
MULE • Vehicle follows workers while they
harvest fruit and place it on bins on the vehicle
• When bins are filled, the vehicle autonomously transports them to the end of the row
• Speeds of 1-3 mph • Basic user interface • Obstacle detection
PACE • Vehicle autonomously drives entire
blocks without any user input • Useful in tasks such as spraying,
mowing, inspecting the canopy for disease and pests, and collecting data for yield estimation
• Speeds of 1-5 mph • Basic user interface • Wireless comms with remote user • Obstacle detection
17
Hough Transform Particle Filter
Row Detection
18
Row Turning & Entry
19 Drive-by-wire vehicle physical architecture
20
Autonomy hardware diagram
21
Autonomy state machine
22
Autonomy software diagram
23
24
25
