Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01D—HARVESTING; MOWING
  • A01D46/00—Picking of fruits, vegetables, hops, or the like; Devices for shaking trees or shrubs
  • A01D46/24—Devices for picking apples or like fruit
  • A01D46/243—Accessories specially adapted for manual picking, e.g. ladders, carts
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01D—HARVESTING; MOWING
  • A01D46/00—Picking of fruits, vegetables, hops, or the like; Devices for shaking trees or shrubs
  • A01D46/20—Platforms with lifting and lowering devices

Definitions

• This fruit picking process results in about 30% of the pickers time actually picking fruit, with the remaining 70% of the time is spent gently placing the fruit into bags or bins after having clipped the stems when required, moving and climbing up and down letters, carrying fruit from one place to another, then walking and carefully releasing the picker bag load of apples into the collecting bin, taking special care not to cause a blemish or bruise on the fruit by rough handling.
• the picker bag load may weigh 40 pounds or more leading to fatigue of the picker and a reduction in efficiency. Due to the seasonal nature of the fruit harvest, fruit pickers are frequently migrant workers, often from other countries. As a result of increasingly stringent immigration policies, a sufficient numbers of pickers may not be available to pick the fruit at harvest time.
• a mobile system for improving the picking and preliminary processing of apples, citrus, stone fruit and the like comprises a mobile chassis upon which can be mounted picking stations, pneumatic tube transport subsystems, optional object scanning subsystems, optional cull diverter subsystems, optional labeling subsystems, and subsystems for relatively gently placing the unculled objects in a receiving bin.
• the system can also include a subsystem for placing diverted objects in a receiving bin. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• Figure 1 is an isometric drawing of a mobile picking system embodying the invention showing the embodiment in its front and side aspects.
• Figure 2 is a side elevational drawing of the mobile picking system shown in Figure 1.
• FIG. 1 and 2 there is shown a novel mobile harvesting system 20 for the picking and preliminary processing of apples, citrus, stone fruit and the like. Tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, and other discreet-object crops may also be harvested using a suitably modified version of this system.
• the illustrated system comprises a chassis 22 which can be equipped with a crawler track drive and steering subsystem 24 of known design.
• a prime mover such as an internal combustion engine or other power subsystem of known design can be used to power the drive and steering subsystem 24 and the other components of the mobile system 20.
• Picker stations 26 are provided at the front of the vehicle chassis 22. These stations 26 can be vertically extended, vertically retracted, horizontally extended, horizontally retracted, rotated, or otherwise moved by known hydraulic or other mechanisms in order to position the picking laborers at convenient positions closely adjacent the apple trees or other trees or plants from which the human pickers are to pick apples, citrus, stone fruit or like objects.
• Asymmetrical objects or groups of objects such as grape clusters, tomatoes, strawberries, or other edibles can be transported by encasing them in pliable bags as disclosed in Vincent E. Bryan, Jr. U.S. provisional application Serial No. 61/085,271 filed July 31, 2008 and entitled "Device And Means To Transport Grossly Asymmetrical Objects Such As A Cluster Of Grapes Through A Pneumatic Tube,"
• Fruit or fruit-filled bags transported through the tubes 27 can be gently decelerated and collected in one or more water baths or other decelerating devices 28.
• One such device is disclosed and claimed in Randy Allard, et al. U.S. provisional application Serial No. 61/146,468 filed January 22, 2009 and entitled “Multi-Section 115 Decelerator Tank” and Dr. Vincent E. Bryan, Jr., et al. U.S. provisional application Serial No. 61/145,899 filed January 20, 2009 and entitled “Deceleration Tank And Extraction Conveyor,” both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
• the collected fruit is then extracted by extraction conveyors 29 such as those described and claimed in the aforementioned Serial No. 61/145,899 application.
• the individual fruit can be conveyed by cross conveyors 30 of known design and past one or more scanning stations of known design 32, each of which includes a high-speed digital camera 35. As the fruit passes the optical cameras 35, the fruit can be rotated so that the camera 35 sees and records images of every aspect of the fruit surface. Suitable software can analyze the camera images and detect any flaws such
• the software then flags the imperfect fruit.
• the imperfect fruit referred to as culls, are diverted by known diverter mechanisms to a hopper 39 located above or within a cull holding bin 40.
• Known diverter mechanisms can comprise active removing devices, mechanical switches or arms, or other
• culled objects can be handled by a hopper and bin system of the sort described and claimed 135 in Randy Allard U.S. provisional application Serial No. 61/146,775 filed January 23, 2009 and entitled "Hopper And Bin System For Handling Apples And Like Objects" incorporated herein by reference.
• culled fruit is collected in the hopper 39, and the hopper 39 can gently lower the fruit into the underlying cull bin 40.
• This labeling system 55 can uniquely identify groups of apples, or even individual apples, passing along the conveyor 50. This labeling will permit the orchardist and downstream handlers and vendors to know the source of the apples, the time and place when and where they were picked, and other useful and valuable information.
• the side rails 90 of the vehicle chassis 22 are set far enough apart horizontally and the upper platform 100 is set high enough to accommodate apple-receiving bins of standard dimensions so that the vehicle 20 can approach a bin, pick up the bin, straddle the bin, position and hold the bin 40 at a 160 predetermined location relative to the chassis so as to receive apples from the cull system.
• the system can move the straddled bin to the rear of the vehicle and locate the bin 80 below the downloader conveyor in a position to receive a stream or flow of apples from the downloader conveyor until the bin is filled. The vehicle 20 will then release or drop off the filled bin behind the onwardly moving vehicle 20.
• bins 40 and bins 80 are identical in appearance and physical aspects. Three, four, or more successive bins 80 may be filled with good or unculled apples. But when the bin 40 which happens to be used as the cull collecting bin is filled, it is lowered into a position between adjacent empty bins 80 on the bin track 85, and then that cull-filled bin 40 is dropped off behind the vehicle 20. In this
• the bin 40 can be picked up by forklift trucks or other mechanisms and delivered to an enterprise such as an applesauce maker which can make profitable use of the culled apples.
• a set of chain conveyors 110 are provided on forwardly extending pickup forks 112. These bin moving chains 110 engage the bottoms of the bins 40, 80 and pull the bins into the vehicle tunnel space created by the side rails 90 and the upper platform 100. Chassis- mounted chain conveyors 114 pull the bins from the forks 112 into a first upload 180 position where a selected bin can be raised from the chains 1 14 up into the cull collecting position as suggested by the bin 40 in figures 1 and 2. To accomplish this, a first bin hoist mechanism 1 15 can be provided on the side rails 90.
• Bins which are not required to be positioned at the cull-collecting position are transported rearwardly by the chain drives 1 14 to be located below the downloader
• the empty bin 80 can be hoisted upwardly by second hoist means 117 into a relatively elevated position so that the apples or other objects in the downloader conveyors 60 do not freely fall in to the bin 80 but are rather gently laid in the bin as explained above. Horizontal motion of the bin 80 could be provided by appropriate equipment in the hoist mechanism 117 or by the underlying transport mechanism 85
• the filled bins remain in their drop-off position until they are collected by forklift trucks or other devices as 195 explained above.
• the invention contemplates that the transport tubes 25, conveyors 32, 50, drop tubes 60 and other mechanisms can be removed from the chassis 22 when desired.
• Spraying equipment, pruning equipment and other known apparatus can be temporarily mounted on the chassis 22 so that the vehicle 20 can be used year-round 200 in all sorts of orchard husbandry endeavors.

Landscapes

• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Harvesting Machines For Specific Crops (AREA)
• Sorting Of Articles (AREA)
• Cultivation Of Plants (AREA)
• De-Stacking Of Articles (AREA)

Priority Applications (11)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=40957525

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (13)

Cited By (10)

Families Citing this family (36)

Family Cites Families (34)

• 2009
  • 2009-02-13 EP EP09710767.6A patent/EP2244547A4/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2009-02-13 RU RU2010133615/13A patent/RU2508621C2/ru active
  • 2009-02-13 US US12/371,446 patent/US7882686B2/en active Active
  • 2009-02-13 AU AU2009214504A patent/AU2009214504A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2009-02-13 NZ NZ705828A patent/NZ705828A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2009-02-13 NZ NZ587417A patent/NZ587417A/en not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2009-02-13 CN CN200980110045.1A patent/CN101977494B/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-02-13 WO PCT/US2009/034132 patent/WO2009103008A2/en active Application Filing
  • 2009-02-13 CA CA2715389A patent/CA2715389C/en active Active
  • 2009-02-13 MX MX2010008814A patent/MX2010008814A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2009-02-13 JP JP2010546935A patent/JP5694781B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2009-02-13 BR BRPI0907881-9A patent/BRPI0907881A2/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2010
  • 2010-08-12 IL IL207601A patent/IL207601A0/en unknown
  • 2010-09-09 ZA ZA2010/06471A patent/ZA201006471B/en unknown
• 2011
  • 2011-02-07 US US13/022,131 patent/US20110126505A1/en not_active Abandoned
• 2014
  • 2014-03-03 JP JP2014040039A patent/JP5869603B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related

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