Smart farming technology is becoming of the actual topics in the modern world of technology. Contemporary farming technology expands robot applications by using AI for the recognition of variable patterns. Moreover, the agriculture field demands a safety robot, due to the fragile surrounded confined space and it must be adaptable to extremely constrained working environments. Therefore, this research paper presents a novel tomato harvesting robot arm based on a continuum robot structure. The proposed continuum robot arm flexible backbone structure provides safety and efficient work in a confined workspace. This research paper consists of three parts: the first part of the paper contains the robot design and the newly designed tomato harvesting gripper tool. The second part of the paper describes the machine learning part for detecting matured tomatoes and the distance measuring technique with a single camera. The third part of the research paper explains robot kinematics and control algorithms. The final part of the research paper explains the experimental results. As a result of the conducted experiment, the tomato harvesting speed of the proposed robot was 56 s for a single tomato. Meanwhile, the tomato recognition accuracy was 96 percent.

Wire-driven continuum manipulators are gaining more attention due to their flexibility and dexterity features. In comparison with traditional manipulators, the continuum structure is compliant and safe for human tissue and is able to easily adapt to the unstructured environment. Despite its advantages, wire-driven mechanisms have a serious problem with tension. While pushing and pulling, the wire loses tension, which leads to an ineffective way of driving the pulleys. Therefore, in this research, we propose a novel discrete continuum robot arm with a passive pre-tension mechanism that avoids the wire tension problem. Moreover, this paper will describe the backbone design of the discrete continuum arm and pre-tension mechanism structure, as well as forward and inverse kinematics and kinetic solutions, with simulation results.

In a previous study, we developed a seven-axis multi-joint gripper (MJG) with a mechanism for varying the joint stiffness and showed that it was capable of dexterous grasping. In this research, we expand this design by introducing a hand with several multi-jointed fingers. The mechanism of grasping with this hand involves the use of serially connected differential gear systems (DGSs). The DGSs are controlled by only two actuators: one for driving the joints simultaneously and the other for adjusting the stiffness of all of the joints. The hand is shown to successfully grasp and envelope objects of some shapes without sensory feedback and handle objects by pinching them with the finger tips and subsequently transitioning to an envelope grasp. The mechanism that significantly contributes to this result is the tip roller attached to the fingertip. It is incorporated into the joint drive mechanism using a DGS. These functionalities are considerably advantageous in scenarios where information about the objects to be grasped, such as the shape and precise position, cannot be obtained.

The tensegrity structure was initially created as a static structure, but it has gained significant attention among robotics researchers due to its benefits, including high payload capability, shock resistance, and resiliency. However, implementing tensegrity structures in robotics presents new technical challenges, primarily related to their wire-driven structure, such as wire-routing and wire-friction problems. Therefore, this research letter proposes a technical solution for the aforementioned problems. The main contribution of this research is the design of frictionless pulley-guided nodes. To validate the proposed concept, we conducted comparative experiments between a common tensegrity prototype and a pulley-guided prototype, evaluating wire tension distribution and payload capacity.

Tensegrity robots offer several advantageous features, such as being hyper-redundant, lightweight, shock-resistant, and incorporating wire-driven structures. Despite these benefits, tensegrity structures are also recognized for their complexity, which presents a challenge when addressing the kinematics and dynamics of tensegrity robots. Therefore, this research paper proposes a new kinematic/kinetic formulation for tensegrity structures that differs from the classical matrix differential equation framework. The main contribution of this research paper is a new formulation, based on vector differential equations, which can be advantageous when it is convenient to use a smaller number of state variables. The limitation of the proposed kinematics and kinetic formulation is that it is only applicable for tensegrity robots with prismatic structures. Moreover, this research paper presents experimentally validated results of the proposed mathematical formulation for a six-bar tensegrity robot. Furthermore, this paper offers an empirical explanation of the calibration features required for successful experiments with tensegrity robots.

This paper presents a mechanical system with a similar configuration to a human musculo-skeletal system for use in anthropomorphic robots or as artificial limbs for disabled persons. First, a mechanical module called ANLES (Actuator with Non-Linear Elasticity System) is introduced. There are two types of ANLES: the linear-type ANLES and rotary-type ANLES. They can be used as a voluntary muscle in a wide-range of musculo-skeletal structures in which at least double actuators work in an antagonistic setup via some elastic elements. Next, an application of the two types of ANLES to a two-degree-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator that has a similar configuration to the human elbow joint is shown. The experimental results of the joint stiffness and joint angle control elucidate that the developed mechanism effectively regulates joint stiffness in the same way as a musculo-skeletal system.