IDS IMAGING DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS
ROBOT SOLUTION FOR AUTOMATING THE LETTUCE HARVEST British research team of agricultural engineering and machinery experts develops harvesting robot with IDS camera.
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ettuce is a valuable crop in Europe and the USA. But labour shortages make it difficult to harvest this valuable field vegetable, as sourcing sufficient seasonal labour to meet harvesting commitments is one of the sector’s biggest challenges. Moreover, with wage inflation rising faster than producer prices, margins are very tight. The BXT motors deliver considerably higher torques than those usual in this drive class. In England, agricultural technology and machinery experts are working with IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH (Obersulm, Germany) to develop a robotic solution to automate lettuce harvesting. The team is working on a project funded by Innovate UK and includes experts from the Grimme agricultural machinery factory, the Agri-EPI Centre (Edinburgh UK), Harper Adams University (Newport UK), the Centre for Machine Vision at Harvesting Services Ltd.,” explains IDS the University of the West of England Product Sales Specialist Rob Webb. “The (Bristol) and two of the UK’s largest salad prototype harvesting robot being built producers, G’s Fresh and PDM Produce. incorporates a GigE Vision camera from the uEye FA family. It is considered to be Within the project, existing leek harvesting particularly robust and is therefore ideally machinery is adapted to lift the lettuce suited to demanding environments. ‘As clear from the ground and grip it in this is an outdoor application, a housing between pinch belts. The lettuce’s outer, with IP65/67 protection is required here,’ or “wrapper”, leaves will be mechanically Rob Webb points out. removed to expose the stem. Machine vision and artificial intelligence are then The choice fell on the GV-5280FA-Cused to identify a precise cut point on HQ model with the compact 2/3” global the stem to neatly separate the head of shutter CMOS sensor IMX264 from Sony. lettuce. “The sensor was chosen mainly because “The cutting process of an iceberg is of its versatility. We don’t need full the most technically complicated step resolution for AI processing, so sensitivity in the process to automate, according can be increased by binning. The larger to teammates from G subsidiary Salad sensor format means that wide-angle 05 - AUTOMATION Mag - June 2021
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optics are not needed either,” Rob Webb summarised the requirements. In the application, the CMOS sensor convinces with excellent image quality, light sensitivity and exceptionally high dynamic range and delivers almost noisefree, very high-contrast 5 MP images in 5:4 format at 22 fps - even in applications with fluctuating light conditions. The extensive range of accessories, such as lens tubes and trailing cables, is just as tough as the camera housing and the screwable connectors (8-pin M12 connector with X-coding and 8-pin Binder connector). Another advantage: camerainternal functions such as pixel preprocessing, LUT or gamma reduce the required computer power to a minimum.
