Comparison of a Lightweight Experimental Shaker and an Orchard Tractor Mounted Trunk Shaker for Fresh Market Citrus Harvesting

Abstract

A designed lightweight experimental shaker successfully used to collect ornamental oranges has been tested to harvest fresh market citrus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the removal efficiency and operational times of this experimental device compared to an orchard trunk shaker. Three different collecting systems were studied. ‘Caracara’ citrus trees were tested. Removal efficiency, vibration parameters, fruit and tree damages, and fruit quality were measured. A high-speed camera was used to record operational times and determine cumulative removal percentage over vibration time. The canvases on the ground reduced the severe fruit damages but were not useful to protect against light damages. The experimental shaker produced a higher percentage of slightly damaged oranges. No significant differences in removal efficiency were found between the two harvesting systems. However, removal efficiency using the experimental device could be reduced by 40 percent and working time increase by more than 50 percent when access to the main branches was difficult. In agreement with previous results, the curve representing the branch cumulative removal percentage in time followed a sigmoidal pattern. A model was built showing that during the first 5 s more than 50 percent of the fruits were detached.

Evaluation of Citriculture Mechanisation Level in Valencia Region (Spain): Poll Results

“…Related to farm machinery, the results from this study confirm that tractors, hydro-pneumatic sprayers, and agricultural shredders are being used in all types of Valencian citrus orchards. However, no farm machinery is used for harvesting operations [7,8,10,11,14,15]. The role of cooperative mechanisation services and other customer services has proven to be crucial to develop citrus pruning and harvest machinery in the Valencian region.…”

“…The increase of the technology level of citrus production operations has proven to be necessary [4][5][6]. In Spanish citrus production, it is crucial to solve the problem of the high costs of manual operations in fresh citrus production [7,8]. Specially during low product price periods, the minimisation of production costs is necessary for citrus growers [9].…”

Finite Element Simulation of Branch Vibration Model Based on Discrete Elements

“…In Equation (10), the modal mass Mlp is expressed by Equation ( 11), the modal damping Clp is expressed by Equation (12), and the modal stiffness Klp is expressed by Equation ( 13). Using three-dimensional software, the fruit tree was modeled by simplifying branches outside the secondary branches into concentrated masses.…”

“…So far, vibration harvesting technology has been applied to the harvesting of fruits such as jujubes, citrus fruits, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, and coffee beans [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Various types of forest fruit vibration harvesting machines have been developed, categorized into crown vibration harvesters and trunk vibration harvesters based on the different vibration modes [6,7,14].…”

Influence of Excitation Position on Mechanized Picking Effect of Camellia Oleifera

“…At present, the effects of the vibration mode and the vibration parameters on the fruit drop rate and fruit damage rate are the main subjects of study (Zhang et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019;Castro-Garcia et al, 2018;Ortiz et al, 2021). Some authors studied the main factors affecting the removal rate of other fruits such as walnut, grape, apricot, citrus, and cherry (Zhou et al, 2016a;Zhou et al, 2016b;Torregrosa et al, 2009;Torregrosa et al, 2019).…”