Robotic Arm Enabled Automatic Tea Harvester

Automation plays a major role in every sector. Automation makes the work easier and it also reduces error. In this generation, there is a shortage of labour in agricultural sector. It could be a major problem in the upcoming generation. It may lead to loss of lives of farmer and it also exploits the agriculture day by day. Introducing automation in agriculture provides flexibility in production and reduces the need of labours. Tea leaf harvesting is the one which essentially needs automation technology. Tea is one of the cheapest beverages in India. India is one of the major producer in the cultivation of tea. It is also the largest consumer of tea in the world and the rate of tea production in India has been declined in the past years. The major reason is due to shortage of labours. So the Automatic tea leaf harvester system has been designed to reduce the need of labour and to increase the level of production. The conventional method of tea harvesting is done by hand plucking (or knives) and harvester machines. Hand plucking of tea leaves is the traditional method and it produces the good quality of tea but it requires more human resources. Usage of harvesting machines reduces the quality of tea since only the ground, tender leaves and buds should be harvested for the good quality of tea. This could be achieved by selecting the leaves by image processing. The robotic arm picks the selected leaves and the image sensor OV2640 camera module is fitted along with the robotic arm. The image sensed by image sensor is given as input to the Arduino UNO. The output process is done by the robotic arm. The movement of the robotic system is also made automatic and it is designed based on the terrain.