Articles
COMPARING THE EFFICIENCY OF FUTURE HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES FOR SWEET CHERRY
Article number
965_26
Pages
195 – 198
Language
English
Abstract
The objective of this research was to compare the efficiency of potential mechanical and mechanical-assist harvest systems with manual harvest of sweet cherries.
Data were collected from harvesting Y-trellised sweet cherries using a prototype fully mechanical harvester, hand-held shakers (portable, high-speed, reciprocating, gasoline-powered tool), and commercial picking crews in Washington.
In Prosser, a USDA-ARS-designed mechanical harvest system comprised of two independently operated, mirror-image halves was used to harvest entire rows of Bing. In Pasco, two teams of three used hand-held shakers (Stihl SP200) and canvas catching surfaces to harvest Skeena. In these teams, one person operated the hand-held shaker and two held the catching surface.
Both mechanical systems remove fruit at the fruit-pedicel junction (i.e., harvest stem-free fruit). A portable labor monitoring system (LMS) comprised of a digital weighing scale, a RFID reader and a computational unit was used to calculate the harvest rate of the mechanical-assist system and hand harvest.
Three approaches were compared: traditional hand harvest (i.e., fruit with pedicel), hand harvested stem-free and mechanically-assisted harvest.
All tests were conducted in a commercial Skeena/Mazzard orchard.
The pickers and each mechanical-assist team were identified with RFID tags.
As fruit were dumped into a standard collection bin (capacity ~170 kg), the LMS read simultaneously a pickers ID and measured the weight of fruit.
These data were compared with previously collected assessments of machine harvest efficiency in a Bing orchard.
The mean picking rate for stem-free Skeena cherries was 4050% greater than fruit with stems when picked by the same crew in the same orchard.
Preliminary tests showed that the mean harvest rate for the mechanical-assist systems was 3.75 kg/min (1.25 kg/person/min) and for the mechanical harvester was 22 kg/min.
These results show the potential to vastly improve harvest efficiency.
Data were collected from harvesting Y-trellised sweet cherries using a prototype fully mechanical harvester, hand-held shakers (portable, high-speed, reciprocating, gasoline-powered tool), and commercial picking crews in Washington.
In Prosser, a USDA-ARS-designed mechanical harvest system comprised of two independently operated, mirror-image halves was used to harvest entire rows of Bing. In Pasco, two teams of three used hand-held shakers (Stihl SP200) and canvas catching surfaces to harvest Skeena. In these teams, one person operated the hand-held shaker and two held the catching surface.
Both mechanical systems remove fruit at the fruit-pedicel junction (i.e., harvest stem-free fruit). A portable labor monitoring system (LMS) comprised of a digital weighing scale, a RFID reader and a computational unit was used to calculate the harvest rate of the mechanical-assist system and hand harvest.
Three approaches were compared: traditional hand harvest (i.e., fruit with pedicel), hand harvested stem-free and mechanically-assisted harvest.
All tests were conducted in a commercial Skeena/Mazzard orchard.
The pickers and each mechanical-assist team were identified with RFID tags.
As fruit were dumped into a standard collection bin (capacity ~170 kg), the LMS read simultaneously a pickers ID and measured the weight of fruit.
These data were compared with previously collected assessments of machine harvest efficiency in a Bing orchard.
The mean picking rate for stem-free Skeena cherries was 4050% greater than fruit with stems when picked by the same crew in the same orchard.
Preliminary tests showed that the mean harvest rate for the mechanical-assist systems was 3.75 kg/min (1.25 kg/person/min) and for the mechanical harvester was 22 kg/min.
These results show the potential to vastly improve harvest efficiency.
Publication
Authors
Y.G. Ampatzidis, Qin Zhang, M. Whiting
Keywords
harvest technologies, mechanical harvest, mechanical-assist, sweet cherries
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