Communications of the ACM
Introducing the Lettuce Peeling Robot
Researchers in the Engineering department of Cambridge University have developed a robotic lettuce leaf peeling system that some consider a breakthrough in agricultural efficiency.
Credit: Department of Engineering/University of Cambridge
A robotic lettuce leaf peeling system developed by the University of Cambridge in the U.K. is seen as a possible breakthrough in improving agricultural efficiency.
The machine-vision pipeline and suction removal/vacuum system can peel lettuce 50% of the time, in an average of 27 seconds.
Said Cambridge's Luca Scimeca, "Our lettuce and stem detection algorithm demonstrates a robot which is robust to clutter, varying lighting conditions, and camera distance, as well as to variations in produce size, shape, and orientation."
The team tested the algorithm on 180 web-camera photos of individual lettuces captured at heights of between 70 centimeters and 100 centimeters.
The lettuce detection algorithm could accurately locate the center of the lettuce with complete accuracy, while stem detection was 81.01% accurate. These findings enabled the researchers to identify the optimum lettuce leaf removal point.
From University of Cambridge
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