Development and evaluation of a pneumatic finger-like end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting robot in greenhouse

•A pneumatic finger-like end-effector for cherry tomato harvesting robot is developed.•The end-effector is compact in overall structure and has the capability of picking cherry tomatoes continuously and steadily.•The clamping finger uses a combination of clamping and rotating and has good adaptability in dense operating environments.•A hand-picking dynamic measurement system for cherry tomatoes is developed.•The comprehensive performance of the end-effector is evaluated and the failure cases are analyzed through field tests.