Automated Mushroom Harvesting System
Introduction
The Technology Division at the Cullen College of Engineering has received from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) a grant to develop an Automated Mushroom Harvesting System. We collaborate with Monterey Mushroom at Madisonville, TX.
The goal of this research is to develop a mobile robotic chassis with mechanical gripping system and computer vision to identify and harvest mushrooms. The mushrooms are grown on shelves. Each shelf has typically six levels of growth trays. Between each two levels, there is limited space (about 8 inches). Existing robots cannot work in such limited space. To meet the production requirements, we are in the process of developing mobile-robot-based system to harvest mushroom involving: 1) mushroom gripping; 2) computer vision; 3) robot motion control; 4) mobile robot path planning; 5) power management; and 6) system integration.
In addition to this project, we also have two other ongoing USDA projects: 1) IoT-based mushroom production optimization; and 2) Mushroom stem for organic chicken feed (collaboration with Prairie View A&M and University of Georgia).
Sponsor
