Virgo Harvesting Robot

Virgo MKV Harvesting Robot

*Unable to show the Virgo MKVI Harvesting Robot due to lack of media available to the public

About the Virgo MKVI Harvesting Robot:

This robot is a fruit harvesting robot that is capable of picking 1200 fruits per hour and was being refined to achieve 1300+ fruits per hour. The robot currently was focuses on harvesting cherry tomatoes. The goal was to create a robot to reduce the amount of manual labor required to harvest fruit within the greenhouse space. This robot was a solution to replenish a shrinking workforce and resolve labor shortage issues.

My Involvement:

Designed bolt on mechanical subsystem that reduces fruit sway and improves robot pick success rates by 15%
Executed DoE to evaluate gripper input characteristics to identify and optimize for required performance outputs to improve efficiency
Lead engineer designing the next generation fruit collection system. Designed electro-mechanical assemblies that harvests, transfers, and sorts fruit throughout the robot.
Worked in a cross-functional team with electrical and software engineers to optimize the vision system, cabling, power consumption, and safety components on the robot
Derived product requirements based off of technical requirement and in-field testing feedback
Utilized SolidWorks to generate solid and sheet metal geometry, weldments, assemblies, and technical drawings
Mentored several junior members and interns on the team
Applied AGILE methodology to adapt dynamically and systematically requirement and scope changes. Generated tickets for project planning, assignments, and workload balance
Assembled latest generation of harvesting robot, documented errors, revised drawings using ECN process with SolidWorks PDM

Project Results:

This project is still ongoing and I am unable to disclose any confidential information that has not been publicly announced or presented to the media.