International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

In order to address multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, we aim to revolutionize iceberg lettuce harvesting with intelligent robots. Our team, comprised of agricultural producers and engineers, has utilized TRIZ methodology, brainstorming, and other techniques to develop an agricultural technology solution: an Integrated Complex that automates harvesting and loading of produce onto transportation vehicles. Our design leverages state-of-the-art deep computer vision – a form of AI that analyzes camera images – to precisely locate mature lettuce heads. The robot identifies optimal grasping points for harvesting and carefully places the heads in a designated transport area. With deep learning at its core, our robots will optimize yield, reduce waste and costs, ushering in a new era of intelligent agriculture.

Agricultural labor is physically demanding, tedious and often carried out in unfavorable conditions, making it suitable for robotization. Due to climate change and the swift increase of the human populace on Earth, the hunger is becoming increasingly an issue (currently, around 2 billion people suffer from malnourishment). With the aim of maximal efficiency of the production of plant food, an accelerated introduction of robotics in the field of agriculture is required (Agriculture 4.0).