Advances and challenges in the deployment of robot-assisted fruit harvesting operations

Presented by

Leonardo Guevara, PhD

Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Tech
College of Health and Science
University of Lincoln

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Abstract

The introduction of mobile robots for the automation of fruit harvesting has great potential to solve current problems related to labor shortages in countries like the UK. Although there are some small companies that already offer solutions for the automatic picking and transport of fruits using autonomous robotic platforms, there are still several technological and societal challenges that need to be resolved so that the agricultural robotics industry can fully develop and be accepted as a profitable solution. This talk will focus on robotic solutions that are currently being tested in both experimental agricultural settings, as well as various solutions that are being implemented commercially. We will focus on the current advances and challenges in the use of mobile robots for the transport of fruits, as well as the key factors that will define the future of horticulture.

Presenter biography

Dr. Leonardo Guevara did undergraduate studies while working as a research assistant at “Escuela Politécnica Nacional” (Ecuador), obtaining the BSc in Electronic and Control Engineering in 2016. He continued with postgraduate studies at “Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María” (Chile), obtaining the PhD degree in Electronic Engineering in 2021. While pursuing PhD, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the Poznan University of Technology (Poland) where he focused his research on autonomous navigation of articulated vehicles used for transporting fruit in robot-assisted harvesting operations. Maintaining this research focus, Dr. Guevara joined the University of Lincoln (UK) as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2021 working on the MeSAPro project whose aim was to develop safety methods to ensure the autonomy of robots that interact with human coworkers in different agricultural operations. Dr. Guevara is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Agri-robotics at the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT) and a member of the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS). His research interests focus on robotics applied to agriculture, robot motion control/planning, and human-robot interaction.