This final report encapsulates the joint effort between Queensland University of Technology and P’Petual Holdings Pty Ltd in developing an autonomous mobile robot for enhancing the pollination process in greenhouses, particularly for Tomberry tomatoes. This initiative aimed to integrate and elevate P’Petual’s proprietary pollination system with autonomous capabilities, thereby addressing the labour-intensive and costly aspects of pollination in tomato cultivation.
The project’s central goal was to design and evaluate a fully autonomous robot capable of navigating complex greenhouse environments, including transitioning between flat concrete surfaces and pipe rails. This was crucial for accessing different crop rows. The robot was equipped with a custom-built pollination fan by P’Petual, optimised for the Tomberry plants’ dense floral structure. The integration of sophisticated navigation, vision, and decision subsystems ensured robust operation under various greenhouse conditions.
Significant achievements of the project included the development of precise localisation and mapping techniques, the formulation of decision-making algorithms for autonomous operation, and the implementation of effective pipe rail alignment methods. The robot’s navigation system was adapted to handle greenhouse environments with obstacles, and the vision system was refined for different greenhouse setups.
Field trials conducted at P’Petual’s greenhouses were crucial in evaluating the robot’s performance and identifying areas for further improvement. These trials tested the robot’s navigation and obstacle avoidance capabilities, the effectiveness of the rail detection system, and the overall operational efficiency in tasks akin to autonomous greenhouse pollination.