[PLUG-TALK] robotic dandelion harvester

[Daniel Hedlund]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 09:58, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:
> While cutting off the tops is labor intensive, the flowers and
> perhaps even the buds should be easy to identify with machine
> vision.  Yellow versus green.  Usually sticks up many inches
> above ground level.  Duh.

Would it make more sense to just "cut the lawn" and separate the
dandelions after the fact?  Even if you manage to find a way to
distinguish dandelions, other grasses would eventually grow up around
it making it harder to discern and cut, especially if your robot isn't
tall enough to look directly down on the flowers.  There are a bunch
of robotic lawnmowers on the market, including some with catchments:
http://www.envirogadget.com/solar-powered/fully-automated-solar-powered-lawn-mower-robot/

Even if you want to collect only the heads, I don't think you would
need to distinguish yellow from green.  A simple comb (i.e.
|\_/\_/\_/\_/|  ) angled about 30 degrees upward at the front of an
automated cart seems like it would probably do the trick.  You could
adjust the flat area at the base of the valley to be wider or narrower
depending on the minimum size of the head you want to harvest.  You
could also soften or round it so that it doesn't pull off immature
heads.

?

Daniel Hedlund
daniel at digitree.org