The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase I project is to enhance scientific and technological understanding in selective harvesting of high-value crops such as strawberry. The innovationproposed here will be a key component in creating a compact economically viable autonomous strawberry harvesting robot. The technology developed in this project will help address the farming labor shortage which is experienced by farmers more and more each year. Agricultural robotics market is estimated to be $11.9 billion by 2026. Providing autonomous harvesting robots will enable farmers to grow more crops with less business risks related to manual labor shortages and will ensure that US farmers remain competitive, while creating more skilled, highly paid jobs.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop critical technologies for delicate selective harvesting of fragile crops such as strawberries at a competitive pace. Recent advancements in computer vision object detection and three-dimensional scene reconstruction will be used to create near real-time operational scenes. Those scenes will be used to detect ripe berries, create a movement path and navigate the fast and precise robot arm for harvesting the berries without damaging fruits while avoiding obstacles.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
