Robot Grippers And Their Applications In Robotic Handling Of Cut Flowers:Dissertation Writing

Guidelines for the preparation of the dissertation

Purpose of the dissertation: To document all major aspects of the project.Length: 10,000 - 15,000 words.Submission: Submit an electronic version through both the SHU assignment and Turnitin assignment points online, by 3pm on the due date.

Report Format:

TitleThe title of the report should be short, descriptive and objective.

Writing StyleThe style of writing adopted should generally be objective, formal, impersonal and written in the third person, past tense. The work should be reported clearly and concisely, arranging points relevant to the argument and omitting non-essential matter. The report should be written so as to be comprehensible both to the specialist and to those with only general knowledge. The student should aim to write for his/her peers, rather than the general public.Margins

In accordance with MS Word default.Font and page styleThis is your and your supervisor's preference, although Arial or Calibri is suggested. A 12pt font is recommended for the majority of the text. Different fonts may be used as necessary for mathematical expressions or emphasis. Pages should be printed on both sides. Line spacing is the preference of you and your supervisor. New chapters should be started on a new page on an odd numbered page (i.e. the right hand page if the dissertation is printed).

Report Contents

The main body of the report should be organised into logical sections as follows:Title Page - please prepare a title page. The information to include in this is at the end of this document.Preface - again, please see the end of this document for the wording to use.

Acknowledgements

Abstract

The abstract should succinctly summarise the entire report (including the conclusions) and should be limited to a maximum of one page. It is recommended that you complete this when you have finished writing your whole dissertation.

Contents

Table of contents, with page numbers, so that material is easy to locate.Index of tables - if required.Index of figures - if required.Glossary of terms and abbreviations (if applicable)

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background to the problem, importance and relationship of the work to previous work etc. This should summarise both the academic motivations for your work and the industrial motivations if your project has been based at an organisation. Your project aims and objectives should also be clearly stated here.

Chapter 2: Literature review

This should cover the main sources of academic literature and demonstrate the academic motivation for your work.

Chapter 3: Methodology

This should cover the methodological approach to the work and highlight the research techniques and / or experimental techniques adopted. If your project is an analysis of existing data, a methodological approach for the analysis is required.

The number and headings of subsequent chapters are at you and your supervisor’s discretion, however you need to include the following topics:- Your experimental design approach / or data collection and /or analysis approach, including how you intend the display and analyse your results or outcomes.- The outcome or results of your work- Discussion of Outcomes and/or ResultsThese should be discussed critically. Experimental and theoretical errors should be assessed or measured and should be incorporated in the results. Results should be compared with those predicted theoretically and their reliability assessed in the light of the estimated errors.

- CritiqueCritically compare your achievements, the project outcomes and actual timings of the plan of work with the original specification. Discuss and comment on discrepancies.

(Costing, discuss the costing of the project if appropriate.)

- Conclusions Further Work

These should be based upon the work described in the report. Recommendations should be included. This should include a review of how and where your work contributes to the existing body of knowledge in this area. Conclusions should not contain any new technical matter.References (see below)

References must be correctly cited both in the text of the report and in the referencesection, using SHU's house style of the APA method. Referencing is a process which requires significant attention to detail and concentration. Errors in referencing are considered a serious problem. It is very important to ask for guidance on referencing if problems exist or if you are unsure about how to present and use their references.

Appendices

As required. Published data should not normally be included as appendices. Advice should be sought from supervisors where a question arises as to what should be included in an appendix for a particular report. Try to minimise the content of appendices as far as possible. It it's important enough, it should be in the main report.General points applicable to the whole report

Numbering

Chapters should be numbered sequentially and the use of sub-headings is recommended. These should also be number sequentially, e.g.1.1, 1.2 etc., may also be used. Figures, tables, displayed equations and appendices should also be numbered consecutively. This may be done on a chapter-by-chapter basis or on a complete report basis.

Diagrams and Tables

Figures should be titled and be numbered consecutively in the report (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). They should be cited and referenced if they are from a secondary source. Tables should be titled and numbered and referenced (if necessary) in the same way (Table 1, Table 2, etc.).units physical quantities, units and numerical quantities should follow the SI system (International System of Units) whenever possible. When other units are used (e.g. BTU, BHP etc.) then the use of these units must be justified. If non SI units are used then great care must be taken to ensure the reader is aware of the fact.

Background

Floriculture is an activity with a huge market potential to generate remunerative employment for small and marginal farmers as well as foreign exchange through exportation on a large scale. It is fast growing and highly competitive and has emerged to be lucrative with higher potential returns compared to other agro-horticulture crops (Kumar, Mehta, Raina, 2016).The global cut flowers market, hit US$ 28,891.5 million in 2021 and is projected to reach a US$ 47,965.5 million valuation by 2030 at a 5.8% Compound annual growth rate during the forecast period. This owes to the growth of both the local and export markets. The size of the industry and its contribution to the global and individual countries’ economies creates the need for state of the art handling from cultivation to retailing. The unavailability of skilled labour for harvesting and post harvesting practices affects the overall industrial output. To curb this, floriculture has been in recent years leaning towards automation of the harvesting and post harvesting processes to increase work efficiency and cut on the high costs of labor ( Kalmegh, S. Sing, N., 2016). Agricultural robotic technology is unavoidable in the modern day as it fulfils the fundamental task of solving the problems of less labor, safety, precision and efficiency, green operation and to fill the gaps that traditional machinery and equipment cannot (Salama, Tayel, Ibrahim, Nasr, 2022).Technological advancement has enabled the automation of almost every part of agriculture. The technologies are mainly classified into autonomous robots, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the internet of things. In the recent years, many researches and development efforts have been made to improve the automation in floriculture using modern day technology and robotics. These include robotic systems for post harvesting processes. The robots mainly have three subsystems; a vision subsystem to detect the flower and its environs, a mobile system and the end effector that allows the system to handle the flower without causing any damage. Each flower handling robotic system requires a gripper (Salama, Tayel, Ibrahim, Nasr, 2022).

Based on the configuration, number of fingers and the intended applications, there are several types of grippers in application in different industries to satisfy the different requirements in application of robotic end effectors. Some of the common types of grippers include; robot grippers with 2 or 3 fingers, multi-finger and adaptive grippers, robot grippers with flexible fingers, O ring Grippers, Bellows Grippers and grain filled flexible grippers (Samadikhoshkho, Zareinia, Janabi-Sharifi, 2019). The systems may also be classified based on the actuation method chosen for the system. The choice of actuation method is based on the object characteristics. The classifications include vacuum grippers, servo-electric grippers, pneumatic grippers, cable driven grippers and hydraulic grippers (Salama, Tayel, Ibrahim, Nasr, 2022).Objectives

The main objective of this study is to research on the different types robotic grippers available in the modern day market, and assess their feasibility in handling tender and irregular shapes, for the purpose of this study, flowers’ stems in the handling of cut flowers.

Specific Objectives

• Study assess state of the art robotics and automation and its application in the floriculture industry.• Study the types of end effectors in application in floriculture or agriculture as a whole.• Study the different types, structures, configurations and actuation methods of different types of robotic grippers.• Assess the feasibility of the different grippers for application in handling cut flowers.

Work Programme

The successful completion of this study from the conception stage to the presentation of the thesis presentation is dependent on the success of every stage of the study. To achieve this, every individual task will be carried out with the aim of achieving near-perfection at everystage. The workload can be broken down into; research and understanding of floriculture locally and internationally to understand the activities carried out, study of automation and robotics and its application in floriculture, study and assessment of various types robotic grippers available, assessment of the feasibility of the various types of grippers in handling cut flowers depending on the findings of the previous two stages, and reporting and presentation of the thesis.Further steps to be taken

1. Preparation work2. Filling out the required forms - risk assessment form, ethics form, publication declaration form, supervisory allocation form and maintain a logbook of project progress.3. Project proposal form4. Collecting all the necessary reference papers for the subject theme5. Literature Review6. Referring subjective papers for knowledge on current technology and the stages of the work happening in the field in the present scenario.7. Software familiarization8. Getting to know the software’s to be used in the project.9. Collecting the dataset of flowers and information regarding the breaking point of the stem.10. Simulating and evaluation of the specific grippers11. Result evaluation and conclusion.12. Completing dissertation documentation13. Final work submission

Deliverables

At the completion of this study, the research and assessment conducted and the final thesis report and findings will create awareness in the floriculture industry. This will include knowledge on the availability, adoption and potential for robotics and automation in the floriculture industry. The impact of utilizing the full potential of the robotics includes higher operation and industrial efficiency, reduction in the labour costs, reduction in pollution levels by replacing outdated machinery and energy sources and ensuring the safe handling of the flowers. Cutting the labour costs and increasing the efficiency of operation increases the profits margins and the revenues gained by the floriculture industry. The final report will aid different levels of handling cut flowers e.g. packaging and retailing in understanding the different types of grippers suitable for handling cut flowers and help in the proper selection of grippers depending on the intended applications. Studying and assessing the existing grippers will also help engineers and manufacturers explore the potential for developing a robotic gripper for specifically handling cut flowers.

Resources

The major resource required for the success of this study is information. A significant percentage of the data used for this study is secondary data on floriculture automation and robotic grippers on the application of robotic grippers of in floriculture which creates the need for the second resource, access to the a large scale or medium scale business or florist for cut flowers which in this case are rigid and raceme type flowers. And a computer with relevant software installed to simulate the grippers.

Beneficiaries

The findings of this study will be directly beneficial to the retailers, florists and curators in the handling, packaging, selection of the cut flowers and the preparation of bouquet both on a retail scale and large scale by creating awareness on the potential for robotics adoption in floriculture. However, the named parties can only benefit if the robotic grippers are adopted in the industry. Other parties who will benefit from this study are the managers and owners of the florists either for the local or international market by providing a solution to the problem high costs of labour and low work efficiency. Researchers, developers and engineers will also be a beneficiary party as the study explores the feasibility of various robotic grippers which will help providing more information for future developments and has the potential to existing niche in floriculture.

Risks

The risk and hazards associated with the project is manageable.

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