CMU creates AI Robot for Wrapping Mango Fruits growing on Trees
28 October 2020
Corporate Communication and Alumni Relations Center (CCARC)
Mold and insects destroy the mango fruit causing it to degrade in appearance, which in turn is a financial loss for the fruit farming industry. In response to this CMU’s Faculty of Engineering have developed a robot using an AI system than can accurately wrap mango fruit in order to protect and preserve it.
It is difficult to have robots successfully work in a green plant based area due to the number of objects interfering with their sensors. Thus the robot must have a sensor system which can deal with such an external environment and can still locate the mango fruits by itself.
Such a robot has been created using AI technology that can detect the color of the mango fruits via a small camera and wrap the mango fruit that is growing on the tree with a carbon bag. The robots can also collect data such as how many mango fruits each tree has.
This technology has the potential to be used with other kinds of fruits and for the development of robots to perform plant pruning.
This robotic wrapping of mango fruits is an accomplishment that has been extended from an entry into the automatic moving robot for smart agriculture by the Thai Robotic Academic Association and National Science Museum Organization. Their entry was awarded an excellent prize that has consequently led to research development which in turn has enabled an industry viable solution.