Automatic method of fruit object extraction under complex agricultural background for vision system of fruit picking robot

Fruit picking robot is required for agricultural automation for fruit harvest, and vision system is the important and crucial composition of a robot system. An automatic extraction method of fruit object under complex agricultural background for vision system in fruit picking robot is presented in this study. The method is based on an improving Otsu threshold algorithm using a new feature in OHTA color space. Color features are extracted in OHTA color space and then used as an input for the Otsu threshold algorithm which calculates the segmentation threshold value automatically. Four kinds of fruit images are selected to validate the automatic extraction method. The fruit objects are automatically extracted with this method and the outputs are presented in binary images. Numerous of experiments show that the automatic extraction method can extract mature fruit from complex agricultural background and the extraction accuracy is more than 95%. The results indicate an effective fruit object extraction method for vision system of fruit picking robot. (C) 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.