Integration and preliminary evaluation of a robotic cotton harvester prototype

•A robotic cotton harvester with a three-finger end-effector was developed and tested.•A closed-loop control algorithm with shorter and fewer substeps performed best.•Manipulating the end-effector wisely led to faster and cleaner picking.•A faster arm and end-effector, and better perception system can enhance performance.•An AI-driven control algorithm can operate the whole system efficiently.