Autonomous Ripeness Detection Using Image Processing for an Agricultural Robotic System

This paper discusses the detection of the ripe and turning tomato fruits using computer vision and image processing techniques. Field workers can run additional pre-processing methods when the lighting or weather conditions are not suitable for taking good quality images. The hardware used in this work is the Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera; the software is Raspbian using python3. The ripeness is detected by using OpenCV and HSV color space. Counting the tomatoes will help the field workers know how many tomatoes are ready for harvesting and how many will be available for harvesting in order to prepare labor or equipment. This hardware set up will be interfaced with the Turtlebot and the robot will navigate the field to achieve ripe detection.