An Integrated Visual Servoing Framework for Precise Robotic Pruning Operations in Modern Commercial Orchard

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ahmed, Dawood, Imran, Basit Muhammad, Churuvija, Martin, Karkee, Manoj
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ahmed, Dawood
Imran, Basit Muhammad
Churuvija, Martin
Karkee, Manoj
author_facet Ahmed, Dawood
Imran, Basit Muhammad
Churuvija, Martin
Karkee, Manoj
contents This study presents a vision-guided robotic control system for automated fruit tree pruning applications. Traditional pruning practices are labor-intensive and limit agricultural efficiency and scalability, highlighting the need for advanced automation. A key challenge is the precise, robust positioning of the cutting tool in complex orchard environments, where dense branches and occlusions make target access difficult. To address this, an Intel RealSense D435 camera is mounted on the flange of a UR5e robotic arm and CoTracker3, a transformer-based point tracker, is utilized for visual servoing control that centers tracked points in the camera view. The system integrates proportional control with iterative inverse kinematics to achieve precise end-effector positioning. The system was validated in Gazebo simulation, achieving a 77.77% success rate within 5mm positional tolerance and 100% success rate within 10mm tolerance, with a mean end-effector error of 4.28 +/- 1.36 mm. The vision controller demonstrated robust performance across diverse target positions within the pixel workspace. The results validate the effectiveness of integrating vision-based tracking with kinematic control for precision agricultural tasks. Future work will focus on real-world implementation and the integration of force sensing for actual cutting operations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_07309
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Integrated Visual Servoing Framework for Precise Robotic Pruning Operations in Modern Commercial Orchard
Ahmed, Dawood
Imran, Basit Muhammad
Churuvija, Martin
Karkee, Manoj
Robotics
This study presents a vision-guided robotic control system for automated fruit tree pruning applications. Traditional pruning practices are labor-intensive and limit agricultural efficiency and scalability, highlighting the need for advanced automation. A key challenge is the precise, robust positioning of the cutting tool in complex orchard environments, where dense branches and occlusions make target access difficult. To address this, an Intel RealSense D435 camera is mounted on the flange of a UR5e robotic arm and CoTracker3, a transformer-based point tracker, is utilized for visual servoing control that centers tracked points in the camera view. The system integrates proportional control with iterative inverse kinematics to achieve precise end-effector positioning. The system was validated in Gazebo simulation, achieving a 77.77% success rate within 5mm positional tolerance and 100% success rate within 10mm tolerance, with a mean end-effector error of 4.28 +/- 1.36 mm. The vision controller demonstrated robust performance across diverse target positions within the pixel workspace. The results validate the effectiveness of integrating vision-based tracking with kinematic control for precision agricultural tasks. Future work will focus on real-world implementation and the integration of force sensing for actual cutting operations.
title An Integrated Visual Servoing Framework for Precise Robotic Pruning Operations in Modern Commercial Orchard
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07309