Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 7.16
Mechanical harvesting of sweet cherries. (From Peterson, D.L. et al.,
Appl.
Eng. Agric.
, 19, 5, 539-543, 2003. With permission.)
7.3.6 H
ARVESTING
A
IDES
AND
P
LATFORMS
Many fresh market tree fruit crops cannot wait for the advent of fully autonomous
robotic harvesting solutions, either because of labor availability or cost issues. In
essence, there just is not any more time available if they are going to survive current
global market pressures. When mechanization will not work and robotics is too far
away, then harvesting aides like those shown in Figure 7.17 may be the only alterna-
tive. They can be as simple as elevated motorized platforms that laborers can work
(a)
(b)
FIGURE 7.17
(a) Mobile platform by BlueLine MFG, (b) apple harvesting Platform by
Hermes. (From Hansen, M., Plethora of platforms: orchard mechanization tools on display in
Italy, http://www.goodfruit.com/Good-Fruit-Grower/January-15th-2011/Plethora-of-platforms/,
2011. With permission.)
