TY - JOUR
T1 - Field evaluation of targeted shake-and-catch harvesting technologies for fresh market apple
AU - Zhang, Xin
AU - He, Long
AU - Karkee, Manoj
AU - Whiting, Matthew David
AU - Zhang, Qin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by USDA Hatch and Multistate Project Funds (Accession Nos. 1005756 and 1001246), a USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) competitive grant (Accession No. 1005200), and the WSU Agricultural Research Center (ARC). The China Scholarship Council (CSC) sponsors Dr. Xin Zhang in conducting her doctoral dissertation study at the WSU Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Washington State University or the USDA. We would like to give our thanks to Allan Brothers Fruit Company, Naches, Washington, for their great support in field data collection.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.13031/TRANS.13779
DO - 10.13031/TRANS.13779
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096749040
SN - 2151-0032
VL - 63
SP - 1759
EP - 1771
JO - Transactions of the ASABE
JF - Transactions of the ASABE
IS - 6
ER -
