A robotic solution for automatic fruit picking

Supervisor: Dr Leonardo Guevara 

What you will be doing 

In this project, the student is going to develop robust strawberry detection and 3D space localization algorithms for automatic picking applications (see Fig. 1). The student will focus mainly on the sensing problem which include: 

• detecting fruits that are ready to be picked in an image, 
• determine the location of the picking point in an image, 
• determining the location of the picking point in a 3D space using depth information 

Fig 1. Illustration of a real robotic harvesting system in action.

However robotic arm motion planning problem is also within the scope of this project. The student is expected to complete the project using a real robotic arm (Viper 300) with a realsense camera attached to it to capture RGB-D data. Experiments will be carried out in a laboratory setting (using plastic fruits).  

What skills would be useful to have for this project 

Necessary skills: Python, computer vision, machine learning tools,  

Desirable skills: deep learning, transfer learning, ROS2, 3d modelling for 3d printing 

How to get more information and apply 

The prospective candidates can apply by sending an email to Dr Leonardo Guevara (lguevara@lincoln.ac.uk) and providing a short background summary focusing on relevant interests and skills together with a CV. All candidates meeting the skills requirements will be accepted and in case of multiple expressions of interest, the project scope will be negotiated with individual candidates. The application deadline is 25th of June and the candidates will be informed about the selection outcome by the 28th of June with an anticipated project start on the 1st of July (this is negotiable).