PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT: ROBOTIC PALM OIL PICKING ARM

Abstract

Despite being the world's second-largest palm oil producer, Malaysia still has trouble harvesting palm fruit due to a labor shortage. This industry is still highly dependent on labor from other nations, particularly in the plantation sector and activities requiring palm fruit harvesting. This led to the development of an innovative project to improve the harvesting process of palm oil by deploying a robotic arm in the real world. This was done to boost the picking activity's output. Thus, the objective of this project is to develop a robotic arm that is not only user-friendly but also capable of being put to work in the activity of picking palm oil. This forward-thinking idea uses an Arduino microcontroller to run the autonomous suspension system for palm oil harvesting activities. The process of constructing a robotic arm encompasses six distinct phases. These stages include requirement analysis, system design, implementation, system testing, system deployment, and system maintenance. The following pieces of hardware are used in this project: an Arduino Uno, a range finder ultrasound ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 HC SR 04, an L298N dual h bridge motor drive controller board module, 18650 battery charger, a Robotic Arm, and an Active Buzzer Module that links through Bluetooth. For picking palm oil, a successful design, testing, and implementation of a microcontroller, ultrasonic sensor, and wireless Bluetooth were accomplished, as well as the system's setup of the robotic arm. Even though the development of robotic arms is still in its infancy, this innovative project indicates that this could potentially be the future approach for automating the picking activity in the palm oil industry