2011 4th International Congress on Image and Signal Processing
Application of Machine Vision in Seedling Automatic
Grafting Robot
Subo TIAN1,2 Tianlai LI1
1. Key Laboratory of Protected Horticulture, Ministry of Education, Shenyang, China, 110866
2. College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China, 110866
Abstract—Vegetable grafting is one of the most effective means to
resist soil-born diseases and to improve yield. Manual grafting
has the problems of low production and poor grafting quality, so
grafting robot is significant for the development of vegetable
grafting production. However, the automation level is still
relatively low. So the introduction of computer vision technique
into grafting robot has great significance in promoting the
intelligent control level in greenhouse. In this paper, development
and current status of domestic and foreign automatic grafting
machine was introduced simply, and review of recent application
of computer vision in seedling automatic grafting robot was
summarized in detail.
Keywords-grafting robot; seedling; machine vision;
I. INTRODUCTION
Vegetable grafting can efficiently increase a plants
resistance to soil-born diseases, increase tolerance to
unfavorable soil conditions, and improve yield.
Grafting is a vegetative propagation technique that involves
joining stem sections (scion with a rootstock). There are several
grafting methods applicable for grafting: Hole insertion
grafting (HIG), Tongue approach grafting (TAG), Splice
grafting (SG), tube grafting (TG), and one cotyledon, splice
grafting (OC-SG), Cleft grafting (CG), Pin grafting
(PG).Grafting methods vary with the kind of crops being
grafted, preferences and experience of the growers.
Manual grafting has the problems of low production and
poor grafting quality, and it’s hard to meet the requirement of
production. Robots have been playing an important role in
automated materials handling in the manufacturing industry.
Service robots have also gained attention in recent years.[1].
II. DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
VEGETABLE GRAFTING ROBOT
2.1 StatusDevelopment of foreign vegetable grafting robot
The first robot, the “One Cotyledon Splice Grafting”
system was developed in 1980s by Iam Brain in Japan to graft
cucurbit vegetables. The robot took into account variation of
seedling shape, location of cutting and gripping, cutting, and
attachment. Seedlings were cut at the point of attachment of
the cotyledon to the hypocotyls at an angle of 20°–30° for the
scion and the rootstock, respectively. The prototype grafting
robot was constructed in 1987 and the second in 1989[2]. It
took 4.5s to make a grafted plant with 95% survival. The
demonstration model robot was deemed practical and the
results were transferred to an agricultural machinery company
that developed machines for the market. Prototype semi-
automatic grafting system was also developed in Korea. And
978-1-4244-9306-7/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
then, several grafting robots have been manufactured by the
Rural Development Administration (RDA), Korea, and will be
distributed to the commercial plug seedling growers at
relatively reasonable prices. Three grafting robots have been
developed in Korea, two is in 1998 and one is in 1999, and
one was commercialized in 2001. The pin grafting robot
developed by Rural Development Administration for
solanaceous crops can graft 1200 seedlings per hour. The
simple and economic grafting machine was developed by
Yupoong and has been very popular in Korea. This machine
by Yupoong, priced about US$500, has been exported for
more than 10 years to many Asian countries and some
European countries. This machine can graft up to 600
seedlings per hour by tongue approach grafting, mostly in
cucurbitaceous crop. However, an experienced operator is
needed to run this machine effectively and efficiently.
Recently a multiuse semi-automatic grafting machine has been
developed by a private company in Korea and many growers
purchased this machine to graft tomato and pepper plug
seedlings. This machine has also been actively exported to
many foreign countries in recent years because of the
reasonable price, multiple functions (can be used for both
cucurbit and solanaceous crops), and convenient handling.
More recently, a fully automated grafting robot (1000 grafts
per hour) has been developed and used commercially for
tomato in Netherlands [3].
Japan has actively been engaged in the development of
grafting techniques because of its wide use of grafted seedlings.
Various types of grafting robots have been developed by the
ISEKI Company, Fig.1 shows the newest type fully-automatic
grafting robot [4]; these grafting robots are modified from the
ones developed by the Biology Research Organization and then
commercialized. The working capacity of these robots reaches
about 900 seedlings per hour with three persons operating them
and has a success rate of more than 95%. This type of grafting
robot employs clips to fix the grafting junction of rootstock and
scion and it is most suitable for rootstocks and scions that are
about the same age. A grafting robotic system for cucumber
developed by the Bio-oriented Technology Research
Advancement Institution (BRAIN) produces 815 seedlings/h
(about three times the rate of manual grafting) at a success rate
of 97.1% [4]. Nishiura et al. developed a grafting robotic
system using the plug-in method. The system was able to
reduce the mismatch of vascular bundles during grafting, and
thus can speed up the healing of the grafted seedlings and make
the seedlings more vigorous [5]. The price of grafting robot
made in Japan is very expensive, which is 60 ~ 300 thausand $,
1405
and the middle and small producer couldn’t purchase.
Furthermore, Kobayashi and Suzuki, et al., Lee and Kurata
have described research on grafting robotic systems. In terms
of the commercialization of grafting robotic systems, three
companies, Yanmar, Osaka, Japan; Iseki, Ehime and
Mitsubishi, Shimane, Japan, assisted by the BRAIN, have
developed grafting robotic systems in Japan. These can
automatically graft cucurbitaceous vegetables and have an
operation capability of 550~1,000 seedlings per hour and a
success rate of 95%. All the grafting robotic systems mentioned
above employ a clip-join grafting technique. This increases the
cost and introduces a requirement for extra labor to recycle the
clips [6, 7, 8, 9, and 10].
2.2 Development of domestic vegetable grafting robot
In Taiwan, Chen et al. developed an innovative grafting
robot, using soft rubber tubes as the grafting material that
encloses and fixes the grafting junction of rootstock and scion,
this works by utilizing the elasticity and expandability of the
rubber soft tubes. The latter grafting robot is suitable for fruit-
bearing vegetables where the rootstock and scion seedlings
have only a small variation in stem diameter, such as
Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, and tea bush plants. This robot has
a success rate of 95.5% and can produce 327 seedlings per hour
[4]. Chiu et al. developed an automatic grafting robotic system
for watermelon seedlings in Taiwan. This system adopts top
plug-in grafting and has the advantage of not using clips, so it
is able to join the graft scion onto the rootstock of a mature
seedling before the scion's cotyledon spreads. With this system,
the scion is very tender and differs greatly in age from the
seedling rootstock. This robotic system has a success rate of
86% and can graft 480 seedlings per hour. Chiu et al. also
developed a circular plug-in grafting robotic system (Fig.2)
[11].
In Mainland China, Zhang T.Z. develop a grafting robot,
which shown as Fig.3. Gu Song developed 2JC-350 automatic
grafting machine with cut grafting method for vegetable
seedling [12]. Gu et al. a 2JC-450 to grafting machine has been
developed with pneumatic power. The test results indicate that
grafting success rate can be more than 90％and grafting rate
call be 450 seedlings per hour[13]. 2JC-500 rotary grafting
machine developed by Northeast Agricultural
University[14].Through grafting experiment and the production
testing ， they have obtained the standard seedling's shape
which suitable to grafting, obtained the machine running
reliably, grafting success ratio is to be bigger than 88％.
All these grafting robot can graft vegetable seedling
automatically. But for successful grafting, the vascular
cambium tissues or clip of the stock and scion plants must be
placed properly in contact with each other, which significantly
depend on matching the diameter of both stock and scion
seedlings. Therefore, prior to the grafting operation, it needs to
select the scion and rootstock seedlings of same diameter. For
this purpose the seedlings need to be graded and inspected,
which are costly and labor intensive operations.
So before a scion or a stock is cut off for grafting, the
seedling needs to be selected, graded and then loaded in a
specific orientation. At present, these operations are still done
manually. In order to measure some features of seedlings,
machine vision technology was used in the grafting machine.
1406
The introduction of computer vision technique into grafting
robot has great significance in promoting the intelligent
control level in greenhouse.
III. APPLICATION OF MACHINE VISION ON SEEDLING
GRAFTING ROBOT
3.1 Dentification of seedling features before grafting
In Kyoto, Ashraf M.A.and Tian S.B. conducted the
research on sorting tomato seedlings using machine vision for
grafting robot. Using a machine vision with backlighting
LEDs, a tomato-seedling grading and sorting algorithm was
developed for a fully automatic grafting robot. A UXGA
camera, a blue color backlighting device and light filtering
devices were selected to acquire seedling images. The
developed algorithm was used to determine the bending, nodes
of leaves and stem diameter of seedlings from their images
and then to grade and sort them as the initial task of the
grafting robot. Results showed that the sorting success rate
was 97% and the rest 3% was failed as the target portions of
the images of seedlings were covered by irregular arrangement
or bended leaves from all sides[15,16].
In Taiwan, an automatic outward-appearance features
measurement system for grafted tomato seedlings was
developed in 2008. The system employs a set of image
acquisition and processing instruments that incorporate image
analysis technology. Computer software packages LabVIEW
7.0 and Vision Assistant 7.0 were used to analyze the
measured seedling feature information, which included the
width and height of the rootstock/scion, the width and the
height of the grafting-tubes, the whole grafted seedling height,
number of leaves, and the canopy area, which is shown in
Fig.4. By monitoring and analyzing this feature information,
the growth condition and the physiological status of the
seedlings can be understood better and controlled. This
research was targeted at grafted tomato seedlings that used
“EG-203” eggplant as the rootstock and “Asian No. 6” tomato
as the scion. The experimental results showed that the
measurement error for the width and the height of both the
rootstock and the scion was less than 9%. For leaf area
measurement, a LI-COR LI-3100 leaf area meter was used to
give a comparative accuracy of the system. The results showed
that the average error for LI-3100 measurements was 3.09%
with a standard deviation of 2.93, while these values for the
developed system was 3.64% and 2.03, respectively; thus,
there was no significant difference between the leaf area
measured by LI-3100 and the developed system[17].
In Mainland China, Liu et al. studied the identification of
seedling with the help of machine vision technology. The
research designed the programming of vision software, fast
separate the seedlings that meet the equipment and transport
the data to the controller to ensure the following organization
selecting and transplanting seedlings carried out, moothly. The
result indicated that after ensuring the accuracy the camera
position and selecting appropriate location model, software
can accurately identify and measure the diameter of seedlings
height and declination angle of the cotyledon in horizontal
direction[18].
 Liu C.L. develops a fully automatic grafting system for
cucurbitaceous vegetables. In order to solve the problems, a
seedling quality estimation method using fuzzy logic and
neural network was developed. The experimental results
showed that the developed method could estimate the seedling
quality for cucurbitaceous vegetables with higher accuracy
compared to manual operation. Utilization of the proposed
method for seedling quality estimation will lead to the
development of a fully automatic grafting system for
cucurbitaceous vegetables. The concept has a good potential to
reduce the manual labor and improve the quality of grafted
seedlings [19].
3.2 Cutting location and orientation of stock before grafting
In China Agricultural University, Zhang T. Z. developed
2JSZ-600 vegetable automation grafting robot. An automatic
orientation system of stock for nutritional bowl seedling
grafting based on image processing technology was studied.
The mechanism is designed for testing stack cotyledon's
horizontal direction and growing point's height direction
automatically. Using image processing technology, the
research develops a arithmetic for automatic testing which
accomplishes automatic test of cotyledon's direction and
growing point's height. Besides, a MCU control system is
developed and it controls the execution mechanism to carry
stock to the right cutting location according to the test result of
the computer. Experiments show that this system runs very
well and achieves the anticipative aim basically. Zhang T.Z.
takes primary research about the problem of stock feeding in
grafting process of nutritional bowl seedling, which is
important to improving degree of grafting. [20]
In 2007, based on machine vision, an automatic orientation
cutting system of stock was developed by Li Z. Q in vegetable
automatic grafting. Two cameras are used in the system and
takes pictures of stock from top and side. Using computer
image processing technology, comparing with all sorts of
picture segmenting arithmetic, using color thresh holding
algorithm to segment the object from background by color
difference and a geometrical algorithm method to search for
the growing point of stock seedlings, and an arithmetic for
automatically recognize cotyledon's direction and test of
growing point's height, the system is designed and the
program was made with the help of Visual Basic 6.0. A
mechanism is designed and made for automatic orientation
and cutting of stock seedlings. Pro-E, one of the three
dimensional CAD software, is used to design the mechanism,
so the design efficiency is improved. After the function
analysis of the mechanism, the servomotor is used to control
the circumgyrating of the stock seedling, and a stepping motor
is used to control the lifting of the stock seedling. Besides, a
MCU control system is developed, detailed research is done to
the hardware and the software of the control system. and the
corresponding control program is compiled. and it controls the
execution mechanism to carry stock seedling to the right
cutting location according to the test result of the computer. in
the end, it controls servomotor to a rotary cutting.
Experiments show that the system runs very well and achieves
the anticipative aim basically. [21]
The vision system of vegetable grafting robot searching for
growth point of Cucurbit seedling was studied and designed
by Zhang T.Z in 1999.The object from background by color
difference, the growth point of grafting vegetable (cucurbit)
can be got by using image morphological method, which is
shown in Fig.5. The result is satisfied [22]. And then the
vision systems of vegetable grafting robot searching for
growth point of Pumpkin Seedling were designed by Zhang
T.Z later. Based on the image segmenting and edge detecting,
a geometrical algorithm was developed to search for the
growth point of the Yunnan black-seed pumpkin seedling
according to its shape features, which is shown in Fig.6.
Eccentricity can be used to identify the pumpkin seedling
from cucurbit. Experiments show that the ratio of successful
differentiation is over 90% [23].
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In a word, aimed at the problem that low productivity and
low survival rate in vegetable production, it is necessary that
research and develop the seedling automatic grafting machine
with machine vision. On the Grafting machine study basis of
domestic and foreign research situation, the review of recent
application of computer vision in seedling automatic grafting
robot was summarized in detail. At present, the research on
identification of seedling features and cutting location and
orientation of stock before grafting with machine vision has
realized successfully. But the inspecting the grafted gap of
scion and stock has not studied yet. So in order to improve the
automation and intelligence, it is more important and
significant to inspect the gap successfully for fully-automatic
grafting robot.
REFERENCES
[1] N. Kondo, K.C. Ting. “Robotics for Plant Production” . Artificial
Intelligence Review, 1998(12): 227–243
[2] C. Kubota, M.A. McClure, N. Kokalis-Burelle, M.G. Bausher, E.N.
Rosskopf. “Vegetable grafting: history, use and current technology
status in North America”. Hortscience, 2008 (43):1663-1669.
[3] Jung-Myung Lee, C. Kubota, S. J. Tsao, Z. Bie, P. Hoyos Echevarria, L.
Morra, M.Oda. “Current status of vegetable grafting: Diffusion, grafting
techniques, automation”. Scientia Horticulturae, 2010,127 (2) :93-105
[4] S.Chen, Y.C.Chiu, Y.C.Chang. “Development of a Tubing Grafting
Robotic System for Fruitbearing Vegetable Seedlings”. Applied
Engineering in Agriculture, 2010, 26(4): 707-714
[5] Y. Nishiura, H. Murase, N. Honami and T. Taira. “Development of
plug-in grafting robotic system”. Proceedings of the 1995 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation,1996:475-480
[6] K. Kobayashi, M. Suzuki and S. Sasaya. “Grafting Robot” . Journal of
Robotics and Mechatronics. 1999,11(3):213-219
[7] J. M. Lee. “Cultivation of grafted vegetables. I. Current status, grafting
methods, and benefits”. HortScience,1994,29(4):235-239.
[8] K. Kurata. “Cultivation of grafted vegetables II. Developments of
grafting robots in Japan”. HortScience” , 1994, 29(4): 240-244
[9] J.M. Lee. “Vegetable grafting: a powerful aid for cultivation of
environmentally-friendly produce” . Modern Science and Technology,
2008 (4):68–85.
[10] Oda, M. “Vegetable seedling grafting in Japan”. Acta
horticulturae,2007(759):175–180
[11] Y. C. Chiu, S. Chen, Y. C. Chang. “Development of a Circular Grafting
Robotic System for Watermelon Seedlings”. Applied Engineering in
Agriculture,2010, 26(6): 1077-1084
[12] S. Gu. “Development of 2JC-350 automatic grafting machine with cut
grafting method for vegetable seedling”. Transactions of the CSAE，
2006，22(12):103-106
1407
[13] X.Y. Zhou, S.Gu, K. Jiang. “Study on 2JC-450 Grafting Machine”.
Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research，2009，31(12):93-95
[14] G.Z. Zou, R.Y. Suo, S .Gu. “ 2JC-500 Rotary Vegetable Grafting
Machine”. Chinese Agricultural Mechanization，2009(1):82-84
[15] Ashraf. Use of Machine Vision to Sort Tomato Seedlings for Grafting
Robot.Engineering in Agriculture, Inviroment and Food,2010, in press.
[16] Tian S.B. “Optimization of machine vision for tomato grafting robot”.
CCTA2010, in press.
[17] Y. C. Chiu, M. Y. Chang, G. J. Wu, C. C. Chen.Development of an
Automatic Outward-Feature Properties Measurement System for Grafted
Tomato Seedlings, Applied Engineering in Agriculture,2006, 24(1): 101-
113
[18] K. Liu,S. Gu. “The Research on Identification of Seedling Based
onMachine Vision” . Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research, Fig.3 Prototype of grafting robot made by China Agricultural University
2009, (11):46-48
[19] C. L. Liu,H.Y. Wang, Q.X. Cao, M. Nagata. Study on Robot Vision and
Judgement System for Seedling Grafting Robot,2001,32(4):38-41
[20] T. Z. Zhang, “Study on Automatic Orientation System of Mock
Automation Grafting used on Image Processing in Vegetable
technology”. Joural of Weifang University,2003,3(6):34-36
[21] T. Z. Zhang, J. T. Wei. “Study on Vision System of Vegetable Grafting
Robot( I ) With Morphological Method”. Journal of China Agricultural
University, 1999，4(4):45-47
[22] T. Z. Zhang, J. T. Wei. “Study on Vision System of Vegetable Grafting
Robot( I ) With Geometrical Method”. Journal of China Agricultural
University, 1999，4(4):48-50

Fig.4 An example of a program screen of the automatic measurement system

for the outward-feature properties of grafted tomato seedlings.

Fig.1 Fully-automatic grafting robot made by ISEKI in 2010

Fig.5 Seedling Images before and after processing

Fig.2 Prototype of the grafting robotic system made in Taiwan

Fig.6 Detecting of growth point with geometrical algorithm method

1408