End-Effectors for Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting Robots: A Review of Key Technologies, Challenges, and Future Prospects

In recent years, agricultural production activities have been advancing towards mechanization and intelligence to bridge the growing gap between the high labor intensity and time sensitivity of harvesting operations and the limited labor resources. As the component that directly interacts with target crops, the end-effector is a crucial part of agricultural harvesting robots. This paper first reviews their materials, number of fingers, actuation methods, and detachment techniques. Analysis reveals that three-fingered end-effectors, known for their stability and ease of control, are the most prevalent. Soft materials have gained significant attention due to their flexibility and low-damage characteristics, while the emergence of variable stiffness technology holds promise for addressing their issues of poor stability and fragility. The introduction of bionics and composite concepts offers potential for enhancing the performance of end-effectors. Subsequently, starting from an analysis of the biomechanical properties of fruits and vegetables, the relationship between mechanical damage and the intrinsic parameters of produce is elucidated. On the other hand, practical and efficient finite element analysis has been applied to various stages of end-effector research, such as structural design and grasping force estimation. Given the importance of compliance control, this paper explores the current research status of various control methods. It emphasizes that while hybrid force–position control often suffers from frequent controller switching, which directly affects real-time performance, active admittance control and impedance control directly convert external forces or torques into the robot’s reference position and velocity, resulting in more stable and flexible external control. To enable a unified comparison of end-effector performance, this review proposes a progressive comparison framework centered on control philosophy, comprising the ontological characteristic layer, physical interaction layer, feedback optimization layer, and task layer. Additionally, in response to the current lack of scientific rigor and systematization in performance evaluation systems for end-effectors, performance evaluation criteria (harvest success rate, harvest time, and damage rate) are defined to standardize the characterization of end-effector performance. Finally, this paper summarizes the challenges faced in the development of end-effectors and analyzes their causes. It highlights how emerging technologies, such as digital twin technology, can improve the control accuracy and flexibility of end-effectors.