Robotic Fruit Picker from Cambridge Consultants Aims to Disrupt the Industry
CAMBRIDGE, UK – A new robotic contender has stepped into the ring, promising a “radical new system design that is poised to disrupt the industry,” or so says Cambridge Consultants.
Designed to handle complex tasks such as picking and sorting, Cambridge Consultants’ robotic technology brings a gentle touch when it comes to fresh produce. Combining high-powered image-processing algorithms and low-cost sensors, like Microsoft’s Kinect, the soft, custom-made gripper “claw” adapts to the shape of the fruit and holds onto it without damaging it.
A demonstration of the machine can be viewed below. As you can see, the robot’s software identifies which piece of fruit is on top of the bowl. It then translates that information into real world coordinates that tell the robot how to position its hand so that it can pick the designated fruit without disturbing the other objects around it. The robot can then sort the fruit by color after it is picked.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Chris Roberts, Cambridge Consultants’ Head of Industrial Robotics, gave a few more details about the inner workings of this gripper.
“The gripper has got a sensor inside it so it can sense the pressure of the vacuum tubes as they close around the fruit. And by only applying a vacuum to the ones that gripped, the ones where there’s a seal, we can spread the pressure across the fruit so we’re not bruising it but we still apply a consistent pressure that allows us to pick up heavier objects.”
The technology behind this machine is reminiscent of a similar robot we covered in a previous story, which also uses rubbery-textured tubes to effectively grab produce items without damaging them.
The biggest challenge now, Cambridge Consultants says, is in figuring out how the robot can work and adapt in an environment that is constantly changing. But it’s a problem worth solving to boost productivity from the field to the warehouse.
“The robot system demonstrates what is possible when you bring together experts from different fields to solve a problem,” Roberts continued. “We’ve combined our programming, electronics, and mechanical engineering expertise with our machine vision and robotics skills to demonstrate the kind of smart system that could transform a variety of industrial and commercial processes.”
It may be awhile before we see these types of robots in wide commercial usage, but given what we’ve seen so far, it looks to be a promising endeavor.
