Base position detection of grape stem considering its displacement for weeding robot in vineyards

The vastness of vineyards in Hokkaido makes it hard for workers to eradicate weeds. To solve this problem, the aim of the current research has been to develop a weeding robot with a multi-link manipulator that uses a stereo camera system as a visual sensing tool for recognizing grape stems. However, the accuracy of this technique is lacking due to unavoidable measurement errors from the stereo camera system. In consideration of this problem, a method that defines the grape stem area has been devised. Additionally, to compensate for errors in the visual sensing technique, a tactile sensing technique has been employed that can haptically recognize a grape stem by means of a multi-link manipulator. In this paper, a robust sensing system is reported that analyzes the displacement of a grape stem to detect it base position such that weeding can be performed.