2008 International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation
Analysis of Workspace and Kinematics for a Tomato Harvesting Robot
Zhiguo Li,Jizhan Liu, Pingping Li and Wei Li
Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment and Technology，Jiangsu
University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China
Lizhiguo0821@126.com
Abstract
Firstly, a tomato harvesting robot in greenhouse
is introduced, the workspace of which is visually
verified that it covers the tomatoes distribution space of
one plant and hasn’t cavity by the pose diagrams of
end-effector, and the designed robot has high flexibility.
Subsequently the forward and inverse kinematics of
harvesting robot is analyzed, so the range of joint
variables and the inverse solution are obtained, and the
catastrophe problem of robot joint value is solved with
the arithmetic application of numerical value
comparison. Finally the kinematics of harvesting robot
was simulated by using the Robotics Toolbox in Matlab
on the workspace, and results indicate the parameters
of the designed end-effector are rational, and this
end-effector can work well with manipulator. So the
harvesting robot can meet the working requirement in
greenhouse.
1. Introduction
Harvesting the fruit is a seasonal work with great
labor intensity, its cost is up to 50%~70% of the
production cost [1] ,so harvesting the fruit timely and
lowering the harvesting cost are an effective way of
increasing the agricultural income. The harvesting
robot has great developing potential in improving the
harvesting efficiency and working conditions. The
harvesting robots of fruit and vegetable were further
studied in Japan, America and Holland at present
[2].The designed robot must meet the requirement of
workspace and motion continuity, the workspace is one
of the main kinematics indexes, which weighs the
working ability of harvesting robot from geometry, and
the motion continuity is one of the main kinematics
indexes, which weighs the working ability of
harvesting robot from dynamic aspect. In order to
analyze the working ability of harvesting robot in
978-0-7695-3357-5/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICICTA.2008.138
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greenhouse, firstly the architecture of harvesting robot
was introduced, and then the workspace and motion
continuity of the robot was studied.
2. Harvesting robot
2.1.Design Concept
Except for the mobile platform, the mechanical
structure of harvesting robot is made up of manipulator
and end-effector, the design of harvesting robot has two
methods, the first is to design the whole robot system,
for example, Mikio Umeda. designed the watermelon
harvesting robot in 1999 [3], Noriyuki MURAKAMI.
designed the cabbage harvesting robot in 1999 [4],
D.Erdogan.designed the apricot harvesting robot in
2003 [5] ,this robot is effective for the fruit-specific,
but it has high design cost and long design cycle; the
second is to get a robot by installing a designed
end-effector on the chosen industrial manipulator, for
example, Van Henten.E.J.designed the cucumber
harvesting robot in 2003 [6],which is made up of a
Mitsubishi RV-E2 manipulator and an end
effector,Achmad Irwan setia wan.designed an apple
harvesting robot in 2004 [7],which is made up of a
DENSO VS-E manipulator and an end-effector,this
robot has low design cost and short design
cycle,especially,it can harvest the other fruit by change
the corresponding manipulator. So the designed tomato
harvesting robot of this laboratory in greenhouse adopt
the second method, which is made up of a
Motoman-sv3x manipulator and a 3-DOF end effector
[8,9].
2.2.Architecture of the harvesting robot
The tomato harvesting robot in greenhouse is
composed of manipulator, end-effctor, camera, PC,
PMAC controller and micro servomotor, the
architecture of harvesting robot can be seen from
Figure 1:
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 The position mechanism of manipulator adjusts the
position of end-effector in 3-D coordinate system, the
orientation mechanism adjusts the relative orientation
between end-effector and tomato; the end-effector,
which consists of execution system, control system,
perceptual system and power supply system, achieves
the task of separation and snatch solely. its mass is
1.2kg,its length is 260mm,and its operation time
needed for each task is only 3s.
3. Analysis of the robot workspace
3.1. Distribution space of tomatoes
The distribution space is a maximum spatial scope
what all the tomatoes of every plant covered. In the
large Venlo glasshouse of this laboratory, the height of
plant slot is 300mm, the mutual distance is 640mm,and
the height range of tomato plants is from 500mm to
800mm.the working environment of harvesting robot in
greenhouse can be seen from Figure 3.
First, a 3-D coordinate system was found on the fixed
base of harvesting robot, when the mobile platform
moves along the aisles, the harvesting object of robot is
the tomatoes of inside the right and left plants every
rested position. the needed workspace of robot W(T)：
320 ≤ x 2 + y 2 ≤ 850
0 ≤ z ≤ 800

1-Camera 2-PC 3-Laser 4-Control cabinet

5-Manipulator 6-End-effector 7-Sucker 8-Finger
Figure 1. Architecture of the harvesting robot

2.3. D-H coordinate system

A D-H coordinate system of the harvesting robot was

found in Figure 2, z i (i = 0,1,...5) is the joint axis,
z 6 is the end-effector coordinate axis. Table l is the
link parameters.

1-plant slot 2-distribution space of tomatoes 3-mobile

platform 4-box 5-robot 6-minimum workspace
Figure 3. Working environment

3.2. Workspace of the harvesting robot

The workspace is the maximum movable spatial scope

Figure 2. D-H coordinates system of the origin P in the wrist. The workspace of robot and
Table 1. Link Parameters of “Harvesting Robot” the distribution space of tomatoes can be plotted in the
Joint i αi ai di θi σi same figure using the pose diagrams of end- effector
1 90 150 300 0 0
[10],it not only exactly displays the working ability of
harvesting robot, but also directly reflects its flexibility.
2 0 260 0 90 0
The main view(a) and top view(b) of harvesting
3 90 60 0 0 0
robot was plotted using geometric method, in main
4 -90 0 260 0 0 view, the workspace of point P at the right of Z is
5 90 0 0 0 0 comprised of closed-arc abcdef,and the rectangle
6 0 0 350 0 0 ABCD is the projection of tomatoes distribution space
θ i : Link rotation angle (rad); d i : link length; to one plant on XOZ plane; in top view, the semicircle
C1C2C3 is the projection of tomatoes distribution
ai : Link offset distance; α i : link twist angle(rad) space to one plant on XOY plane, P1、P2、P3、P4 and P5

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 are a series position of point P on the workspace. ⎡ci − si cα i si sα i ai ci ⎤
⎢s ai si ⎥⎥ （1）
Because of the orientation mechanism of manipulator
ci cα i − ci sα i
is a 3 DOF concurrent structure, so the pose of i −1
Ai = ⎢ i
end-effector is a part sphere at the center of point P ⎢0 sα i cα i di ⎥
⎢ ⎥
（-135<θ6<135）,the sector is the pose section diagram ⎣0 0 0 1 ⎦
that the end-effector can reach. where： si = sinθi , ci = cosθi , sαi = sinαi , cαi = cosαi
As can be seen from Figure 4:
1) In the main view，the work scope of point P in z Insert the link parameters from Tab.l in equation (1),
the pose of end-effector is given:
axis is larger than the height of tomato plant; In the top
view, the section diagram of the achievable pose for ⎡nx ax ox px ⎤
⎢n a o p ⎥
end-effector covers the projection of the tomato y ⎥ （2）
0
A6 =0A1 1 A2 2 A3 3 A4 4 A5 5 A6 = ⎢ y y y
growing space in XOY plane. So the workspace W(P) of ⎢nz az oz pz ⎥
harvesting robot envelopes the tomatoes distribution ⎢ ⎥
space of one plant W(T) ⎣0 0 0 1 ⎦
2) The workspace hasn’t consisted in cavum, thereby where：(nx,ny,nz) is a normal vector；(ax,ay,az) is ,a
the reference point of end-effector can reach its every approach vector；(ox,oy,oz) is a orientation vector；
point, and this robot is easy to use. (px,py,pz) is the end-effector position vector.
3) The end-effector can reach the same point with 4.1.2 Forward kinematics simulation.The forward
many poses, so the harvesting robot has high flexibility. kinematics simulation is to simulate the attainable pose
of end-effector in terms of the actual paraments of
robot link.
First, a harvesting robot model was found by using
the Robotics tool, it can be seen from Figure 5:

Figure 5. Harvesting robot model

1)Testing the robot model: In order to test the
correctness of link parameters and the D—H
coordinate system, first the end-effector position
coordinate from Fig.2 is directly given as follows:
p x = 150 + 260 + 350 = 760
py = 0
Figure 4.Pose diagrams of the end-effector
p z = 300 + 260 + 60 = 620
4. Kinematics analysis However, the initial position of manipulator joint
variable is:
4.1. Forward kinematics analysis [θ01 θ02 θ03 θ04 θ05 θ06] =[0 pi/ 2 0 0 0 0]
Inserting it in rotation matrix（2）,the calculated result
4.1.1. Forward kinematics solution.The forward by MATLAB is:
kinematics is to solve the end-effector kinetic pose as ⎡0 0 1 760⎤
the geometric parameters of adjoining-link and the ⎢0 −1 0 0 ⎥⎥
motional displacement are given. 0
A6 = ⎢
⎢1 0 0 620⎥
According to the D-H coordinate system, the ⎢ ⎥
homogeneous transformations of link i-1Ai（i=1,2….6） ⎣0 0 0 1⎦
In conclusion, the end-effector coordinate in reference
is：
frame from two results is equal; this result indicates the
model is correct.

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 2)Rotate joint (XOZ plane) simulation:First, keeping Let : N = 0 A1−1 ⋅0 A6 ⋅5 A6−1 ⋅4 A5−1
the rotate joint variables θ1、 θ 4、 θ 6 are 0,and only let
⎡ε 1c5 + ε 2 s5 ε 1 s5 − ε 2 c5 ε3 γ⎤
θ 2、 θ 3、 θ 5 change within its limits,Table 2 is the ⎢v c + a s v s − a c n s − o c λ⎥
simulated data both the rotated angle and the end =⎢ 1 5 z 5 1 5 z 5 z 6 z 6 ⎥
⎢ η1 s5η2 c5 η1 s5 −η2 c5 η3 b⎥
effector pose. ⎢ ⎥
⎣ 0 0 0 1⎦
Table 2. Rotated angle and end coordinate
θ2 θ3 θ5 Where:
px py pz
ε 1 = (c1 n x + s1 n y )c6 − (c1o x + s1o y ) s 6
-30 -30 45 89.41 0 350.04
45 30 60 848.1 0 721.99
ε 2 = c1 a x + s1a y ; v1 = n z c 6 + o z s 6
90 60 120 -121.9 0 815.17 ε 3 = (c1 n x + s1 n y ) s 6 − (c1o x + s1o y )c 6
180 90 135 -195.0 0 -63.12 η1 = ( s1 n x − c1 n y )c 6 + ( s1o x − c1o y ) s 6
Meanwhile, the permissible rotate angles are given:
η 2 = s1 a x − c1 a y
− 380 < θ 2 < 1800
− 42 0 < θ 3 < 180 0 η 3 = ( s1 n x − c1 n y ) s 6 + ( s1o x − c1 o y )c6
− 108 0 < θ 5 < 180 0 b = −η 2 d 6 + s1 p x − c1 p y
3)Rotate joint(XOY plane) simulation:First, keeping
the rotate joint variables θ 2、 θ 3、 θ 5 is 0,and only let
γ = −ε 2 d 6 + c1 p x + s1 p y − a1
θ 1、 θ 4、 θ 6 change within its limits, Table.3 is the λ = − a z d 6 + p z − d1
simulated data both the rotated angle and the obtained (4～9)：
end-effector pose. θ1 = arctg[( p y − a y d 6 ) ( p x + a x d 6 )]
Table 3. Rotated angle and end coordinate
d 42 + a 32 − γ 2
− λ 2 − a 22 γ
θ2 θ4 θ6 px py pz θ 2 = ± arcsin( ) − arctg ( )
− 2a2 γ 2
+ λ2 λ
-150 -120 -135 -407.03 -235.00 -310.00
γ − a2 c2 a3
-60 -30 -45 235.00 -407.03 -310.00 θ 3 = ± arcsin( ) − arctg ( ) − θ2
2
d +a
4
2
3
d4
90 60 120 0 470 -310.00
180 90 135 -470.00 0 -310.00
θ 4 = ± arccos((s1 n x − c1 n y )s6 + (s1o x − c1o y )c6 )
Meantime, the permissible motional angles are given: tg(θ 2 + θ 3 )(c1o x + s1o y ) − o z
θ 6 = arctg( )
− 170 0 < θ1 < 170 0 n z − tg(θ 2 + θ 3 )(c1 n x + s1 n y )
− 180 0 < θ 4 < 180 0 s1ax − c1a y
− 180 0 < θ 6 < 180 0 θ5 = arctg( )
(s1nx − c1n y )c6 + (s1ox − c1o y )s6
4.2.2 Nonuniqueness of solution.The θ 2 , θ 3 and θ 4
4.2. Inverse kinematics analysis
have respectively two values from the above
expression of solution, so the robot joint variables have
4.2.1 Inverse kinematics solution.The inverse eight groups solution, and it is apt to result in a
kinematics is to solve the joint variables as the catastrophe problem of joint. In order to keep the
end-effector pose is given, transforming equation (2) transfer path continuous, θ 2 , θ 3 and θ 4 must be limited
into: its scopes from the control algorithm:
1
A2 2 A3 3 A4 = 0 A1−1 ⋅0 A6 ⋅5 A6−1 ⋅ 4 A5−1 （3） 1)Scopes of θ 2 and θ 3 :Limited its scopes in the first
Let: M=1A2 2 A3 3 A4 and the fourth quadrant.
⎡c23c4 − s23 − c23s4 s23d4 + c23a3 + a2c3 ⎤ 2)Scope of θ 4 :limited the θ 4 with the arithmetic of
⎢s c c
⎢ 23 4 23 − s23s4 − c23d4 + s23a3 + a2 s2 ⎥⎥ numerical value comparision.when the end-effector
= was moved to the i and i-1 point, the θ 4 was
⎢ s4 0 c4 0 ⎥
⎢ ⎥ respectively signified with θ 4i and θ 4i −1 ,and the two
⎣ 0 0 0 1 ⎦
values of θ 4i was signified with θ 4i n （n=1,2）:
Where:
s23 = sin(θ2 +θ3 ),c23 = cos(θ2 +θ3 ), s4 = sinθ4 , c4 = cosθ4 Let d k = θ 4i n − θ 4i −1 + kπ , k = 0,±1
min

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 if d 0 is minimum, θ 4i = θ 4i n
θ 4i n > 0,θ 4i = θ 4i n − π
else:
θ 4i n < 0,θ 4i = θ 4i n + π
4.3.Motion simulation and analysis
4.3.1.Motion simulation.On the workspace, the
end-effector coordinate of initial position A is (760，0，
620) ,and the harvesting object position B is（800，0，
350) ,the movement of harvesting robot from A to B
was simulated by using the Robotics Toolbox in
MATLAB, The curves of rotated angle、velocity and
acceleration can be seen from Figure 6, The trajectory
of end can be seen from Figure 7.
Figure 6. rotated angle、velocity and acceleration
Figure 7. Trajectory of the end
4.3.2 Motion analysis
1)Motion Analysis of Joints:As can be seen from
Fig.8,the curves of rotated angle and velocity for joint
2、3 are smooth, and the others are the same.
2)Motion Analysis of the End: As can be seen from
Fig.9,after the end-effect moved from A to B,its end
coordinate X 、 Y and Z respectively become 8.02m,
-3.82m and 3.93m from initial position,it indicates the
last three joint can achieve many poses.
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5.Conclusion
1)The workspace of harvesting robot was visually
verified that it covers the tomatoes distribution space of
one plant and hasn’t cavity with the pose diagrams of
end-effector, and the designed robot has high flexibility
and can work well in greenhouse.
2)The range of joint variables was obtained by the
simulation of forward kinematics; it lays the foundation
for the motion control and the trajectory planning of
harvesting robot in future
3)The inverse solution was gained, and the
catastrophe problem of robot joint value was solved
with the arithmetic application of numerical value
comparison.
4)The kinematics of harvesting robot was simulated in
the Robotics toolbox on the workspace, the motion
continuity of which indicates the parameters of the
designed end-effector are rational, and this end-effector
can work well with the manipulator. So the harvesting
robot can meet the working requirement in greenhouse.
Acknowledgments. This research is performed
under support of the National natural science
foundation of China under Grant 60575020.
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