This summer 2023Pal Robotics used the actuatorsREGNER RA-MINI ALU o integrate them into automated guided vehicles (AGVs), but in this case, we’re not talking about just any vehicle.
Pal Robotics is part of the European projectCANOPIES a collaborative paradigm for human workers This project is the first attempt to introduce a collaborative prototype in precision agriculture for permanent crops.
The main objectives of the project, together with the European Union, were the following: to develop new human-robot interactions (HRI), foster new collaborations between both parties (HRC) and establish methodologies for the coordination of multiple robots (MRC). These objectives were aimed at implementing an efficient paradigm of collaboration between human workers and teams of multiple robots. This approach was validated in the context of table grape vineyards.
The intention is for the robot to be able to perform a series of tasks that a human worker is used to doing, such as identifying whether the bunch is at the right point to be picked, detecting which branches of the vineyard need to be pruned and how to do it without damaging the vineyard or the grapes. One point that the tasks have in common is that they require precision, so the robot has to be equipped with different systems and therefore advanced design, and this is where REGNER entra to help.
Canopies is part of the H2020 plan, and has a four-year duration and a budget of 6.9 million euros. The project is a great opportunity to take the world of agriculture to a more sustainable level, and can offer many new opportunities, as well as solutions that would revolutionize a sector with an enormous history and tradition. It should also be noted that productivity would increase considerably, and we would move to a more efficient type of harvesting.
RA-MINI series actuators, provided by REGNERwere used to give mobility to a robotic gripper, they were placed at the top of the same providing linear movement. The actuators, in this case, are limit switcheswhich means that it cuts off the power supply when it detects that it has reached the end of its travel. Because of the possibilities offered by this movement, Pal Robotics has incorporated a tool at the end of it that allows the manipulation of the grape bunch in the vineyard field, the branches, as well as other functions that can be commanded to the prototype.
This type of small actuators, presented as RA-MINI in REGNER, mentioned before, stand out due to its small size, which allows them to be introduced or placed in difficult locations or where there is very little space, as in this case the robot’s hand, or usually touching other sectors, such as the medical, we could find them in instruments for the analysis and for diagnostic, laptops, mass spectrometry, medical devices and even in our home. This is part of motion control, which is the automation of different devices.
