AUTONOMOUS HARVESTER FOR CILANTRO WITH BUNCHING AND TYING CAPABILITY

This Phase II seeks to advance the system's technology developed in Phase 1 and validate it in relevant environments, aiming for a TRL 9 for the cilantro harvester, with a focus on optimizing the initial design and building a fully integrated cilantro harvester ready to be commercialized for farming applications. Padma AgRobotics has set the following specific objectives of the Phase II work plan:O1. Design and build ground-based cilantro accumulation and tracking system.O2. Develop semi-autonomous mobile platform.O3. Develop a label inserter and integrate the tying unit.O4. Integrate cutting and transporter unit.O5. Build multiple harvester arms and conveyor belt for transportation.Padma AgRobotics will address the following questions during this Phase II:1) Can the system cleanly accumulatethe cilantro in each row and feed to the bunching and tying unit without getting stuck in the soil due to soil height variation?2) Will the accumulation system cleanly separate out the plants in each row (in 8 rows of cilantro on a 84-inch bed) and feed to the bunching and tying system?3) Can the system cleanly collect, bunch and tie the cilantro with the manufacturer label at 1 mph on an 84-inch bed while steering itself through the bed based on the bed furrows?4) Will the platform be able to run for 8 hours daily continuously without any issues?5) Can the system cleanly collect, bunch and tie the cilantro while moving at 1 mph on a cilantro bed, for at least 200 feet, without getting stuck anywhere?6) Will the ground tracking system be able to ensure that the bunching and tying system is creating a tie consistently at 1 inch from the soil?7) Will the ground tracking system be able to consistently control the arm movement such that they do not get hit by the soil and get affected by ground height variation?8) Can the harvester system with multiple harvester arms operate on a cilantro bed at 1 mph to generate 1 cilantro bunch every 3 seconds from each row, consistently without any errors?9) Can the harvester identify the weeds in the cilantro plants and avoid bunching those sections?