Spraying and pollinating date palm trees is currently done manually by a team of three workers from a platform lifted 18 meters or more above the ground. This method is extremely unsafe and many accidents have happened due to lack of stability when the platform is in a lifted position. Alternatively, date clusters are occasionally sprayed by a large pressurized sprayer directly from the ground, a method that is highly unselective and environmentally harmful. In this paper we present the concept of an automatic apparatus that can effectively and accurately spray and pollinate date clusters from a robotic apparatus mounted to a standard tractor operated by a single driver. The apparatus consists of a robotic arm and computer controlled sprayer, guided by a computer vision system that detects and localizes date clusters with a camera. This system will minimize risk of injury, significantly save manpower (from three to one person per team), and deliver the spray with maximum accuracy thereby reducing chemical disposure. A small scaled prototype has been built and is currently under preliminary experiments.
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ASME 2008 9th Biennial Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis
July 7–9, 2008
Haifa, Israel
Conference Sponsors:
- International
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4838-8
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
A Robotic Prototype for Spraying and Pollinating Date Palm Trees
Amir Shapiro,
Amir Shapiro
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Eran Korkidi,
Eran Korkidi
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Amit Rotenberg,
Amit Rotenberg
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Gilad Furst,
Gilad Furst
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Harel Namdar,
Harel Namdar
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Barak Sapir,
Barak Sapir
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Maor Mishkin,
Maor Mishkin
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Ohad Ben-Shahar,
Ohad Ben-Shahar
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Yael Edan
Yael Edan
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
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Amir Shapiro
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Eran Korkidi
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Amit Rotenberg
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Gilad Furst
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Harel Namdar
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Barak Sapir
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Maor Mishkin
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Ohad Ben-Shahar
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Yael Edan
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Paper No:
ESDA2008-59208, pp. 431-436; 6 pages
Published Online:
July 6, 2009
Citation
Shapiro, A, Korkidi, E, Rotenberg, A, Furst, G, Namdar, H, Sapir, B, Mishkin, M, Ben-Shahar, O, & Edan, Y. "A Robotic Prototype for Spraying and Pollinating Date Palm Trees." Proceedings of the ASME 2008 9th Biennial Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis. Volume 4: Fatigue and Fracture; Fluids Engineering; Heat Transfer; Mechatronics; Micro and Nano Technology; Optical Engineering; Robotics; Systems Engineering; Industrial Applications. Haifa, Israel. July 7–9, 2008. pp. 431-436. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ESDA2008-59208
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