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Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
Automated Harvesting Of Burley Tobacco I. System Development, Larry G. Wells, George B. Day V, Timothy D. Smith
Automated Harvesting Of Burley Tobacco I. System Development, Larry G. Wells, George B. Day V, Timothy D. Smith
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications
A fully automated system for harvesting and handling mature buriey tobacco has been developed. This article identifies the operations essential to this harvesting concept and describes the development of the mechanisms by which they were accomplished. The system detaches, inverts and places mature plants into portable holders for air curing under waterproof covering without requiring any manual handling of the crop. Manual labor currently required to harvest buriey tobacco would be reduced by 80-85% and the system would eliminate the drudgery associated with manual handling. The harvesting system has an approximate capacity of 1.4 to 2.0 ha/day (3.5 to 5.0 …
Automated Harvesting Of Burley Tobacco Ii. Evaluation Of System Performance, Larry G. Wells, George B. Day V, Timothy D. Smith
Automated Harvesting Of Burley Tobacco Ii. Evaluation Of System Performance, Larry G. Wells, George B. Day V, Timothy D. Smith
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications
A prototype system for fully automated harvesting of burley tobacco has been developed and tested. Three years of field testing has shown that mechanical losses associated with the system were only slightly higher than via conventional methods. The system performed reliably at a sustained harvesting rate of approximately 1.4 ha/day (3.4 acre/day), while indicating that a rate of 2 ha/day (5 acre/day) should be easily achievable. The system is operated by two workers and reduces conventional labor requirement by approximately 80-85%.