Edan, Y.
Miles, G.E.
Flash, T.
Wolf, I.
Grinspun, F.
Peiper, U.M.

Describes a prototype robot for selective harvesting of melons. The robot consists of a Cartesian manipulator mounted on a mobile platform which is driven by a tractor. Melons are detected with a real-time machine vision system which consists of two black and white cameras. Melon ripeness is measured by an electronic sniffer. Intelligent control was implemented using the blackboard architecture. The robot was tested on two different melon cultivars in two different seasons. In real field conditions 85-88 per cent of the fruit is detected and over 85 per cent of the fruit is successfully picked.