TY - GEN
T1 - A robotic knot-tying platform for high-trellis hop twining
AU - He, Long
AU - Zhang, Qin
AU - Charvet, Henry J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The research presented in this paper was partially supported by S.S. Steiner, Inc., the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Hatch Funds (WPN00728 and WNP0745), and Washington State University Agricultural Research Center (ARC) and Washington State University Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of S.S. Steiner, Inc., USDA or Washington State University.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The hop plant is usually trained to grow on strings in commercial production. String twining is a labor intense task in high trellis hop fields, and there is a high demand in the industry to have the operation mechanized. In this study, an innovative twining platform, consisting of a robotic knot-tying end-effector and a trellis wire holding system, was developed to perform this knot-tying process automatically in high-trellis hop fields. Kinematic analysis was carried out to illustrate the trajectory of the knot-tying process. A robotic twining platform, using a pneumatic actuating system, was built to validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed concept and control algorithm. Two series of laboratory tests were conducted, one tested knot-tying only, and the other a test of the entire process. Knot-tying tests indicated that the developed robot knot-tying end-effector could achieve the required knot, and the successful rate was 100% under the cycle periods of 5.9 s. The entire process tests indicated that approximately 15 s was required to complete one entire cycle before reaching the next wire. This result showed that the invented robotic twining platform can successfully tie clove hitch knots satisfactorily for high trellis hops production.
AB - The hop plant is usually trained to grow on strings in commercial production. String twining is a labor intense task in high trellis hop fields, and there is a high demand in the industry to have the operation mechanized. In this study, an innovative twining platform, consisting of a robotic knot-tying end-effector and a trellis wire holding system, was developed to perform this knot-tying process automatically in high-trellis hop fields. Kinematic analysis was carried out to illustrate the trajectory of the knot-tying process. A robotic twining platform, using a pneumatic actuating system, was built to validate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed concept and control algorithm. Two series of laboratory tests were conducted, one tested knot-tying only, and the other a test of the entire process. Knot-tying tests indicated that the developed robot knot-tying end-effector could achieve the required knot, and the successful rate was 100% under the cycle periods of 5.9 s. The entire process tests indicated that approximately 15 s was required to complete one entire cycle before reaching the next wire. This result showed that the invented robotic twining platform can successfully tie clove hitch knots satisfactorily for high trellis hops production.
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U2 - 10.3182/20130327-3-jp-3017.00023
DO - 10.3182/20130327-3-jp-3017.00023
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84896322706
SN - 9783902823304
T3 - IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline)
BT - 2013 IFAC Bio-Robotics Conference, IFAC BioRobotics 2013 - Proceedings
PB - IFAC Secretariat
T2 - 2013 IFAC Bio-Robotics Conference, IFAC BioRobotics 2013
Y2 - 27 March 2013 through 29 March 2013
ER -