TY - GEN
T1 - A robotic platform "bin-dog" for bin management in orchard environment
AU - Ye, Yunxiang
AU - He, Long
AU - Zhang, Qin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported in part by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Hatch and Multistate Project Funds (Accession No 1005756 and 1001246), USDA National Institutes for Food and Agriculture competitive grant (Accession No 1003828), and Washington State University (WSU) Agricultural Research Center (ARC). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Washington State University.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Bin management is an important task in tree fruit harvesting at the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of United States. Typically, bin management is performed by a human driver using either a tractor-mounted forklift. To simplify the traditional bin management process and improve its efficiency, this reported research created and validated a conceptual robotic "bin-dog" system which uses a "go-over-the-bin" feature and four-wheel-independent steering system to deliver an empty bin overpass a full bin laid in the aisle between two tree rows to the picking zone, then remove the full bin out the aisle when drive back the end of the field autonomously. In this study, a proof-of-concept "bin-dog" prototype was designed, fabricated and tested using GPS-based navigation system in commercial orchard environment for assessing its capability of achieving the proposed functionalities. Field tests conducted in a commercial apple orchard verified that the developed prototype could complete a simplified bin managing cycle through steering into an aisle, driving alone the aisle, loading a bin laid at 60 m into the aisle and leaving the aisle automatically.
AB - Bin management is an important task in tree fruit harvesting at the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of United States. Typically, bin management is performed by a human driver using either a tractor-mounted forklift. To simplify the traditional bin management process and improve its efficiency, this reported research created and validated a conceptual robotic "bin-dog" system which uses a "go-over-the-bin" feature and four-wheel-independent steering system to deliver an empty bin overpass a full bin laid in the aisle between two tree rows to the picking zone, then remove the full bin out the aisle when drive back the end of the field autonomously. In this study, a proof-of-concept "bin-dog" prototype was designed, fabricated and tested using GPS-based navigation system in commercial orchard environment for assessing its capability of achieving the proposed functionalities. Field tests conducted in a commercial apple orchard verified that the developed prototype could complete a simplified bin managing cycle through steering into an aisle, driving alone the aisle, loading a bin laid at 60 m into the aisle and leaving the aisle automatically.
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U2 - 10.13031/aim.20162462088
DO - 10.13031/aim.20162462088
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85009152772
T3 - 2016 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, ASABE 2016
BT - 2016 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, ASABE 2016
PB - American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
T2 - 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting
Y2 - 17 July 2016 through 20 July 2016
ER -