# Robotic Button Mushroom Harvesting Systems: A Review of Design, Mechanism, and Future Directions
## 5 Discussion
On-shelf platforms, such as Cartesian carts with manipulators, require specially designed shelves to support their movement. Off-the-shelf platforms, like ground-based vehicles, are often used for outdoor fruit and vegetable harvesting. For mushrooms, the space between shelf arrays must accommodate these vehicles, which could reduce the growing space and require the platforms to be robust enough to carry the entire harvester unit. Despite these challenges, ground-based vehicles can be flexible and useful in open 3D growing spaces and for transporting mushrooms from collectors to processing units. The feasibility of such mobile carriers in mushroom harvesting needs further exploration. Sensors in mushroom harvesting are primarily used for data measurement, but their potential as feedback systems remains underutilized. Sensors like LIDAR, ultrasonic, radar, and infrared can aid in obstacle detection and avoidance for mobile platforms and can be combined with vision sensors for mushroom identification. Additionally, sensors such as thermal, acoustic, and vision could be studied to assess mushroom health, detect diseases, and ensure quality. Another critical aspect of automation is the efficiency of the machines in terms of productivity and profitability. Efficiency is a broad topic and can represent different performance metrics. Nevertheless, we can directly compare some of the picking performance metrics of commercial harvesters with those of manual picking. The picking performance metrics of the modern commercial harvester are compared with manual picking in Table 4. Automated harvesting has caught up with manual harvesting in picking speed; however, accounting for the success rate, automated harvesting still has a long way to go. Not to mention, manual picking can be equally effective in picking mushrooms from any growing conditions like cluster mushrooms; however, we do not have enough information to claim how automated harvesters can adapt to different growing conditions. Having said that, automated machines can work 24 h a day [7], increasing the overall productivity. Although automation has shown its competitiveness in terms of picking speed, energy consumption and economic considerations present significant challenges. Many mushroom farms operate with traditional setups, making the necessary modifications to integrate automation both complex and costly. Additionally, implementing automated systems often requires hiring skilled labor, which comes at a higher wage. Operating expenses, maintenance costs, and potential losses from downtime further contribute to the financial burden, making the transition to automation a substantial investment for many industries. In addition to these challenges, automation systems require a reliable and substantial energy source. The costs associated with energy management, consumption, and potential losses due to power outages must be carefully considered. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment of automation with respect to costs, profitability, and energy consumption must be performed for commercial harvesters.