Constraints and Criteria (October)

Constraints

• Robot must be able to locate the center of the flower and move the end effector to cover the center of the flower
• Robot must be able to transfer at least 1000 grains of pollen to the center of the female flower (inspected visually using UV camera)
• Robot must be able to differentiate between male and female flowers
• Robot must be able to detect if flower is ready for pollination (flower is open)
• Robot must be able to move autonomously without damaging plants
• Robot must be able to store harvested pollen from male flower during transfer
• Robot can withstand Florida’s extreme weather conditions
  • 45 degrees C
  • 95% humidity
  • 13 UV index
  • Note: rain and monsoons are not taken into consideration

Criteria

• Pollination speed
  • Metric: amount of time (in seconds) to pollinate one flower
• Pollination Success
  • Metric: % of successful female flowers pollinated in 10 attempts
• End effector accuracy
  • Metric: mm accuracy when trying to move the end effector to a target location
• Cost Effective
  • Metric: how much one robot costs to manufacture

Objectives (October)

• Create a robot that successfully pollinates crops that historically rely on insect pollination (Focus: watermelon flower)
• Extract pollen from the male flowers and safely transfer it to the female flowers
• Provide another option for pollination to maintain agricultural practices as insect populations decrease
• Data collection
• Flower is ready for pollination/pollinated successfully