Energy-efficient fruit harvesting: Evaluating the power consumption of a drum-type picker for sustainable orchard management

Federal Scientific Agroengineering Center VIM, 109428 Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: rostislav-filippov@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of operating modes of needle fruit picker, in particular to the study of energy efficiency of working needle type. Relevance of this research topic on reduction of irretrievable yield losses of fruit of seed crops is given. The description of the results of measuring the force of piercing of fruits when the needle drum hits the fruit depending on the depth of needle penetration into the fruit is given, so at the depth of needle penetration in 30 mm the force is equal to 26,3 H, and when the depth increases up to 50 mm the force on the needle increases up to 39 H. The mean value of force at needle withdrawal from the fetus was 17 H. Using the results of measuring the forces when piercing the fruit, the components of the energy costs required to implement the technological process were calculated. The working device is a cylindrical drum with a diameter of 305 mm with several rows of spikes, which, when moving, creates a vertical force on the fruit of about 3479 H. It was calculated that 675 W of power is required to overcome the resistance of needle penetration into the fruit while the machine is moving at a speed of 0.4 m/sec. Energy consumption for lifting the fruit from the soil surface to the level of unloading was 31 W, for rolling the drum on the surface of the row spacing was 280 W, for removing the needles from the fruit before unloading on the conveyor belt, 372 W was required. The total power required to operate the needle picker is about 2,040 kW.