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Full-Text Articles in Plant Sciences
Elliptical Combing Motion For Harvesting Bell Peppers, J. H. Wilhoit, George A. Duncan, Larry G. Wells
Elliptical Combing Motion For Harvesting Bell Peppers, J. H. Wilhoit, George A. Duncan, Larry G. Wells
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications
A new concept for mechanically harvesting bell peppers, intended specifically for multiple-pass harvesting, utilized spaced horizontal fingers combing vertically upward through plant foliage in an elliptical path alternating from both sides of the row. An apparatus based on this concept was designed and built, and harvest tests were conducted to determine the effect of two main machine operating parameters, vertical picking speed and disk angle. Harvesting performance was evaluated in terms of harvest efficiency, fruit damage, and plant damage as it related to multiple-pass harvesting. Fruit removal, both harvestable size and immature, increased significantly as vertical picking speed increased. Branch …
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%.
Automated Sorting Of Oriented Tobacco Leaves, Larry G. Wells, M. J. Bader
Automated Sorting Of Oriented Tobacco Leaves, Larry G. Wells, M. J. Bader
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications
A mechanism has been developed which removes cured burley tobacco leaves from plants so that midribs are oriented parallel. A photosensor was utilized to count leaves as they were removed and a microprocessor determined the number of leaves allocated to each of three grades. Experiments indicated that 84% of leaves removed could be correctly sorted with a 2.4% material loss at an effective rate of approximately 2.4 times that of conventional methods.