This is a nice proof of concept, but it's not anywhere production-ready.
For instance, this apple harvester is using UR5 robot arm. It's a very research-friendly robot that I like to work with, but it's nowhere ready for outdoors.
Its reach is just shy of 1 meter -- not practical for apples as well.
Their choice to place an Intel RealSense camera on the wrist of the robot means that they have a USB cable running through the robot. My experience shows that even heavy-duty cables only work for hundreds of hours in such a mode and then require a replacement.
The soft gripper that they use is a good choice for the task, but it depends on compressed air, which means an extra tube running through the robot arm - usually it means even more maintenance required.
Still, this approach can be productionized, but the end result might look very different from this prototype.
For instance, this apple harvester is using UR5 robot arm. It's a very research-friendly robot that I like to work with, but it's nowhere ready for outdoors.
Its reach is just shy of 1 meter -- not practical for apples as well.
Their choice to place an Intel RealSense camera on the wrist of the robot means that they have a USB cable running through the robot. My experience shows that even heavy-duty cables only work for hundreds of hours in such a mode and then require a replacement.
The soft gripper that they use is a good choice for the task, but it depends on compressed air, which means an extra tube running through the robot arm - usually it means even more maintenance required.
Still, this approach can be productionized, but the end result might look very different from this prototype.