Effects of Tree Architecture and Shake-and-catch Method on Fruit Removal Efficiency and Damage in Mechanical Harvesting of Apples

Abstract. The state of Washington is the biggest fresh market apple ( Borkh.) producer in the U.S., and the state’s annual apple production has exceeded 60% of the national production. Due to the extensive labor requirements for harvesting fresh market apples, there is burgeoning demand for mechanical harvest solutions. Our transdisciplinary studies on mechanical harvest systems for apples have shown that fruit removal efficiency (FRE) with a vibratory system can be improved with precision canopy management. In this study, we evaluated the effect of precision pruning strategies on FRE in two groups (106 and 107, respectively) of randomly selected horizontal branches of ‘Jazz/M.9’ apple trees in a commercial orchard. Fruiting lateral branches were pruned to either shorter than 15 cm (guideline 1, G1) or 23 cm (guideline 2, G2). Harvest tests were conducted using a shake-and-catch harvester prototype developed by Washington State University with a fixed vibrating frequency of 20 Hz and shaking duration of 5 s. FRE for branches treated with G1 was significantly higher (91%) than FRE for branches treated with G2 (81%). We recorded a negative relationship between FRE and lateral shoot length. FRE was up to 98% when shoots were shorter than 5 cm, and FRE was only 56% for shoots of 25 cm or longer. We developed a shoot diameter-to-length index (S-index) to better understand the effect of shoot size on FRE. FRE was as high as 98% when the S-index was greater than 0.15. In addition, mechanically harvested fruit quality was assessed by categorizing the fruit into Extra Fancy, Fancy, and Downgrade fresh market classes based on USDA standards; however, no significant difference was found between the two treated groups. These results suggest that pruning lateral fruiting branches to less than 15 cm or to an S-index greater than 0.03 is required to achieve FRE of 85% with no negative impacts on fruit quality. Keywords: Canopy management, Fresh market fruit, Fruit removal efficiency, Mechanical harvest, Shoot pruning severity.

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Evaluation of Shake-and-Catch Methods on Harvesting of Tall Spindle Apples

Transactions of the ASABE ◽

10.13031/trans.12612 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 857-863

Author(s):

Haiqian Xing ◽

Shaochun Ma ◽

Ming Liu ◽

Menglong Wang ◽

Yi Wei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Properties ◽

Removal Efficiency ◽

Removal Rate ◽

Test System ◽

List Type ◽

Labor Costs ◽

Fresh Market ◽

Fruit Removal ◽

Apple Trees ◽

Fruit Damage

HighlightsBoth frequency and amplitude were influencing factors in analyzing the fruit removal efficiency and fruit damage.This research focused on tall spindle ‘Fuji’ apple trees, which enriched the study of the variety and architecture resources of apple trees.The advice for shake-and-catch harvesting was based on the analysis of amplitude and frequency from the perspective of energy consumption.Abstract. Almost all fresh-market apples are picked manually, and these apples rank among the most labor-intensive fruit crops to produce. Due to declining labor supply and rising labor costs, fresh-market apple growers are seeking mechanical harvesting solutions. Shake-and-catch is a potential method that has been well studied. However, because of fruit damage, this method cannot be widely used for fresh-market apples. The primary goal of this study was to investigate how the physical properties of the fruit tree and the shaker parameters affect fruit removal efficiency and fruit damage in an effort to help growers find solutions to the above-mentioned issues. A test system was developed, and its performance was evaluated in certain shaking modes. Based on the experimental results, the physical properties of the tree (length and diameter of limb, length and diameter of twig, and apple weight) and the frequency and amplitude of the shaker influenced the effectiveness of fruit detachment. When the amplitude of the shaker was 14.3 mm and the frequency was less than 15 Hz, the length of the twig had the greatest effect on fruit harvesting. However, with increasing frequency and amplitude, the effect of tree properties on fruit harvesting declined, and amplitude had a more significant effect on fruit harvesting than frequency. Moreover, the fruit removal rate reached 91.43% when the amplitude was 14.3 mm and the frequency was 20 Hz. The results of this study contribute to the development of an effective mechanical harvester that is adapted to tall spindle apple trees. Keywords: Amplitude, Apple fresh market, Frequency, Physical properties, Shake-and-catch, Tall spindle.

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Fruit removal efficiency and success: influence of crop size in a neotropical treelet

Plant Ecology ◽

10.1007/s11258-006-9175-7 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 189 (1) ◽

pp. 147-154 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Raúl Ortiz-Pulido ◽

Yuri V. Albores-Barajas ◽

S. Anaid Díaz

Keyword(s):

Removal Efficiency ◽

Fruit Removal ◽

Crop Size

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Effect of Shaking Location and Duration on Mechanical Harvesting of Fresh Market Apples

Applied Engineering in Agriculture ◽

10.13031/aea.12974 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 175-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Long He ◽

Xin Zhang ◽

Yunxiang Ye ◽

Manoj Karkee ◽

Qin Zhang

Keyword(s):

Removal Efficiency ◽

Fruit Quality ◽

Performance Test ◽

Horizontal Plate ◽

Fresh Market ◽

Fruit Removal ◽

Apple Trees ◽

System A ◽

Fruit Damage ◽

Removal Efficiencies

Abstract. With adopting the modern high-density tree architectures, localized shake-and-catch harvesting is becoming more promising for fresh market apples. To investigate the shaking inputs for an effective harvesting system, a multi-tier shake-and-catch harvesting platform was developed and evaluated in a commercial orchard. The platform composes of a shaker and two three-tier catching surfaces. Performance test was conducted in ‘Jazz’ apple trees trained to a vertical fruiting wall architecture (two horizontal branches at each tier). Two harvesting sections were defined in the test trees, namely, Section I - two neighboring branches at the same tier from two adjacent trees; and Section II - two branches at the same tier of a tree. For Section I, shaking was applied to the middle of each branch (location P1), and for Section II, shaking was applied at the location close to the trunk (location P2). Shaking frequency was set to 20 Hz, and two shaking durations (i.e., 5 and 2 s) were used. In the test, the catching angle relative to the horizontal plate was set to 15°. The results indicated that the fruit removal efficiencies (2nd to 4th tiers of trees were used in the analysis) were 76.6% and 78.1% for shaking at middle of each branch in 2 and 5 s shaking, respectively; those numbers were 86.3% and 89.5% for shaking at location P2. The percentage of marketable fruits were 89.7% and 90.6% for the Section I shaking in two durations, and 84.5% and 84.4% in the Section II shaking. Overall, this study revealed that 2 s shaking duration is sufficient to remove majority of fruits in the tested variety, and the section II shaking had higher overall fruit removal efficiency but also caused slightly more fruit damage. Keywords: Fresh market apples, Fruit quality, Fruit removal efficiency, Mechanical harvesting, Multi-tier shake-and-catch.

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Effect of excitation position of a handheld shaker on fruit removal efficiency and damage in mechanical harvesting of sweet cherry

Biosystems Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2014.06.016 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 125 ◽

pp. 36-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Jianfeng Zhou ◽

Long He ◽

Qin Zhang ◽

Manoj Karkee

Keyword(s):

Removal Efficiency ◽

Sweet Cherry ◽

Fruit Removal

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Field Evaluation of Targeted Shake-and-Catch Harvesting Technologies for Fresh Market Apple

Transactions of the ASABE ◽

10.13031/trans.13779 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (6) ◽

pp. 1759-1771

Author(s):

Xin Zhang ◽

Long He ◽

Manoj Karkee ◽

Matthew David Whiting ◽

Qin Zhang

Keyword(s):

Removal Efficiency ◽

Fruit Quality ◽

Washington State ◽

Automated System ◽

List Type ◽

Agricultural Crop ◽

Continuous Linear ◽

Fresh Market ◽

Fruit Removal ◽

Harvesting Systems

HighlightsThree shaking methods and vibratory harvesting systems were evaluated and compared.Multi-year field evaluations were performed with up to six cultivars trained to formal architectures.The updated semi-automated system achieved the highest fruit removal efficiency and the best fruit quality.Abstract. Apple is the most economically important agricultural crop in Washington State. In 2018, Washington State produced ~3.3 billion kg of apple, accounting for approximately 63% of U.S. production. Fresh-market apple is currently harvested manually, requiring large numbers seasonal semi-skilled workers for a small harvest window. To overcome the increasing challenges of uncertain labor availability and raising labor costs, a promising mechanical harvesting system, using a targeted shake-and-catch approach, is under development at Washington State University. This study evaluated the system by analyzing its fruit harvest efficiency and fruit quality with three shaking methods, i.e., continuous non-linear, continuous linear, and intermittent linear shaking, on up to six apple cultivars trained to formal tree architectures. Results showed that intermittent linear shaking achieved 90% fruit removal efficiency for ‘Scifresh’ cultivar, while continuous linear shaking achieved only 63% removal efficiency for ‘Gala’. This study also compared three vibratory systems: a hand-held system, a hydraulically driven system, and a semi-automated hydraulic system. The semi-automated system achieved the highest fruit removal efficiency (90%), followed by the hand-held (87%) and hydraulic (84%) systems, mainly due to the different shaking methods employed. However, the differences were statistically insignificant. Fruit catching efficiency varied among the harvesting systems, with the hand-held system achieving the highest efficiency (97%), followed by the hydraulic (91%) and semi-automated (88%) systems. Among the three tested technologies, the prototype semi-automated system achieved the highest level of mechanization, as well as high fruit removal efficiency and the best fruit quality. Because the semi-automated system did not include an auto-positioning function, positioning its shaker head took about eight times longer (~103 s) than the actual shaking time (~13 s), which suggests that a fully automated system is desirable to further increase productivity. This study showed that the shake-and-catch approach has great potential for practical adoption in harvesting of fresh-market apple and therefore can have a positive economic impact on the U.S. apple industry. Keywords: Automation in apple production, Bulk mechanical harvest, Semi-automated system, Shaking method, Time efficiency.

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Vibration parameters assessment to develop a continuous lateral canopy shaker for mechanical harvesting of traditional olive trees

Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research ◽

10.5424/sjar/2016142-7909 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. e0204 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Rafael R. Sola-Guirado ◽

Francisco Jimenez-Jimenez ◽

Gregorio L. Blanco-Roldan ◽

Sergio Castro-Garcia ◽

Francisco J. Castillo-Ruiz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Removal Efficiency ◽

Vibration Amplitude ◽

Olive Tree ◽

Training System ◽

Fruit Removal ◽

Ground Speed ◽

Mutual Adaptation ◽

Olive Trees ◽

Vibration Parameters ◽

Canopy Shaker

The fruit harvesting is a key factor involving both product quality and profitability. Particularly, mechanical harvesting of traditional oil olive orchards is hint by tree training system for manual harvesting, tree size and several and slanted trunks which makes difficult trunk shaker work. Therefore, canopy shaker technology could be a feasible alternative to develop an integral harvester able to work on irregular canopies. The aim of this research was to determine vibration parameters applied to the olive tree for efficient mechanical harvesting by canopy shaker measuring fruit removal efficiency and debris. In this work, a continuous lateral canopy shaker harvester has been developed and tested on large olive trees in order to analyse the operating harvester parameters and tree properties to improve mutual adaptation. Vibration amplitude and frequency, rod density and ground speed were assessed. Vibration amplitude and frequency beside ground speed were decisive factors on fruit removal efficiency. Increasing rod density has not influenced on removal efficiency although it increased significantly debris. Promising results has been reached with 77.3% of removal efficiency, applying a 28 s shaking duration, 0.17 m amplitude vibration and 12 rod drum. This result was obtained reporting 0.26 s of accumulative shaking time over 200 m/s2 resultant acceleration. The canopy shaker mechanism enabled more than 65% of detached fruits to fall vertically, facilitating catch fruit. In order to improve removal efficiency it is advisable to adapt trees, set high amplitude in the shaker mechanism, and enhance the contact time between rods and tree.

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Link augmented binary (LAB)-tree architecture

IEE Proceedings E Computers and Digital Techniques ◽

10.1049/ip-e.1993.0019 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 140 (2) ◽

pp. 127 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

R. Mittal ◽

B.N. Jain ◽

R.K. Patney

Keyword(s):

Tree Architecture

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Degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol by melamine amine celluloseimmobilized lacasses

TAPPI Journal ◽

10.32964/tj16.10.553 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (10) ◽

pp. 559-564 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

ZHEN WANG ◽

PINGPING BIN ◽

YING LIU ◽

YU LIU ◽

GUIHUA YANG ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Enzymatic Activity ◽

Removal Efficiency ◽

Immobilized Laccase ◽

Dialdehyde Cellulose

Epoxidized dialdehyde cellulose (EDC) was prepared and grafted with melamine to obtain melamine grafted epoxidized dialdehyde cellulose (EDC-melamine); the products were characterized by various methods and were used as carriers to immobilize laccase. Results show EDC-melamine can immobilize laccase effectively and have higher enzymatic activity compared with EDC. Furthermore, the enzymatic activity of EDC-melamine was found to be as high as 865 U•mg-1, compared with 140U•mg-1 for EDC. The removal efficiency of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) for EDC-melamine immobilized laccase was about 71.5% at 40°C for 4 h at 10.0 mg•L-1 and dosage of laccase = 0.2 g/L. The removal efficiency can remain greater than 63%, even after six cycles.

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