Enhancing Efficiency of Human Pickers in Strawberry Harvesting With Quadruped Robots

Abstract In this work, we present a step toward boosting human picker efficiency in strawberry harvesting using quadruped robots. Transitioning from manual to automated harvesting in the fruit industry, especially for fresh-market strawberries, remains a challenge due to the delicate nature of the fruit and unique field layouts. A notable inefficiency in manual harvesting is the time human pickers spend transporting filled trays to collection stations. Quadruped robots, renowned for their adaptability in challenging terrains, emerge as promising candidates for mobile crop transportation. Extending the foundational concepts from previous work, we introduce quadruped robots as auxiliary support units specifically tailored to boost human picker efficiency. Such legged platforms have demonstrated their mobility in agricultural scenarios. The robots can traverse various agricultural terrains, including rugged and muddy furrows in the field and main irrigation lines at the headland. Beyond advancements in transportation robot hardware, our system introduces a novel predictive scheduling algorithm, aiming to enhance harvesting efficiency. Specifically, this algorithm is engineered for real-time replanning, to account for unpredictable picker behaviors. Our empirical results show that the integration of quadruped robots leads to 15% decrease in total makespan of the task and a 72% decrease in non-picking time, compared to traditional manual methods.