DistantNews
Support us
Dragonbot: The young inventors' robot that harvests dragon fruit
🇦🇷 Argentina /Technology

Dragonbot: The young inventors' robot that harvests dragon fruit

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Researchers have developed Dragonbot, an autonomous robot designed to harvest dragon fruit, identifying and picking only ripe fruit.
  • The robot uses cameras and artificial intelligence to assess fruit maturity, minimizing damage during collection.
  • Tested in real-world conditions, Dragonbot successfully harvested over 75% of ripe pitayas with minimal damage, showing potential for other delicate fruit harvests.

Technology is increasingly transforming the agricultural sector, and a new development from Spain showcases this with the creation of Dragonbot, a robot specifically designed for the autonomous harvesting of dragon fruit.

Developed by researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de València, in collaboration with the Institute of Automatic Control and Industrial Computing (ai2) and various tech companies, Dragonbot aims to enhance harvest efficiency and prevent damage to the delicate crop. The system integrates cameras, analytical algorithms, and a specialized gripping mechanism to locate, assess, and collect the fruit.

A key feature of Dragonbot is its ability to analyze each fruit individually before harvesting. Using advanced vision algorithms, it determines the precise point of ripeness. The robot navigates agricultural terrains on a four-wheel-drive autonomous platform and is equipped with a robotic arm featuring a specially designed claw. This claw is engineered to hold the fruit gently, avoiding any pressure that could cause damage.

The cutting mechanism also minimizes the risk of deterioration. It employs a vibrating blade and pneumatic shears to precisely detach the fruit from the plant. Furthermore, flexible pneumatic fingers handle the pitayas with care, preventing bumps, marks, or deformations throughout the harvesting process.

During field trials, Dragonbot demonstrated impressive results. According to the newspaper La Razón, the robot successfully harvested over 75% of the ripe dragon fruits, with less than 12% of the collected fruits showing any signs of damage. Francisco Rovira, director of the Agricultural Robotics Laboratory, stated that this validates the robot's viability not only for pitaya harvesting but potentially for other delicate fruits as well. This innovation highlights the growing role of robotics in modern agriculture, particularly for crops requiring precise handling.

This validates the viability of our robot for the autonomous collection not only of pitaya, but also of other delicate fruits.

— Coral OrtizThe project coordinator expresses confidence in Dragonbot's technology based on successful trials.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog