Development and evaluation of pick positioner for fruit harvesting and tree pruning

Abstract

A tractor mounted pick positioner was developed and evaluated, which has a movable platform, persons can stand on the platform and can be lifted to the total height of 9.6 m (32') for fruit harvesting and tree pruning. The weight of pick positioner is about 470 kg and it act as a cantilever on tractor. The centre of gravity of tractor alone was 67.9 cm from rear axle, whereas the CG of tractor with pick positioner Table 5 Labour required (man-days/ha) for harvesting by using pick positioner machine and by conventional method Crop Man-days/ha Man-days/ha Saving (Conventional method) (Pick Positioner) (%) Amla 194.52 55.32 71.55 Mango 656.26 291.26 55.62 Mahagony Table 6 Tree pruning performance of tractor operated pick positioner Tree No. of trees Total labour Average labour Labour requirement p - value pruned requirement requirement using Pick using conventional (man-h) positioner (man-h/tree) methods (man-h/tree) Ashoka (Saraca asoca) 8 20 2.5 15 (06-24)* (Avg. labour saving 80-90%) Ashoka (Longofolia) 6 13 2.2 Jamun (Syzygium Cumini) 14 21 1.51 Alostonia (satpatia) 10 14 1.40 Mahagony (Sweitenia mahagani) 11 14 1.3 Average - - 2.0 15 0.0120 *Normal pruning to pruning of thick stems SINGH ET AL. observed that picking capacity for amla fruit by using pick positioner was significantly higher (P = 0.0001) than picking by conventional method. The average picking capacity using the pick positioner was found to be 2.73 and 18 kg/h for mahagony and mango fruits respectively as compared to the picking capacity 8 kg/h in case of mango fruit during conventional method whereas for mahagony fruits, picking was not possible by conventional method. The labourwas shifted to 92.6 cm from rear axle. The CG of tractor shifts from 67.9 cm to maximum of 98.1 cm from rear axle in downward position of pick positioner. For amla harvesting, the average picking capacity of three different subjects using pick positioner was found to be 122.3 kg/h having CV 8.2 whereas in case of conventional picking the average picking capacity of three different subjects was 34.7 kg/h having CV 17.2. The results revealed that picking capacity for amla fruit by pick positioner was significantly higher (p = 0.0001) than conventional method. The average field capacity using the pick positioner was found to be 2.73 and 18 kg/h for mahagony and mango fruits respectively. The labour requirement was 2.5, 2.2, 1.51, 1.40, and 1.3 man-h/tree for ashoka, ashoka (longofolia), jamun, alostonia, and mahagony trees respectively, whereas in case of conventional method of tree pruning, an average labour requirement was found to be 06 man-h/tree in simple tree pruning and 24 man-h/tree in case of pruning of thick stems. The fuel consumption during the machine operation varied from 2.0-2.5 l/h when tractor engine was stopped after positioning the platform at required height to 5.0-5.5 l/h when tractor engine was always running during harvesting/pruning. The overall results revealed that labour requirement for tree pruning by pick positioner was significantly (P = 0.0120) lesser than conventional method.