Mobile Picking Platform for Orchard Harvesting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current fruit harvesting methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and pose safety risks due to the need for frequent ladder use, manual handling of storage boxes, and inefficient management of empty and full boxes in orchards, leading to potential fruit damage and increased operational costs.
Innovation Solution
A mobile picking platform system with adjustable picking stations and a storage box carrier that allows for continuous movement of storage boxes, reducing the need for shuttling and minimizing ladder use, featuring a storage unit and shuttle trailer for efficient transfer of empty and full boxes, optimizing box management and reducing handling and walking distances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual harvesting with ladders and storage boxes is used, then fruit can be harvested from trees, but labor intensity and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from ground-level manual harvesting to elevated platform harvesting. The mobile picking platform raises workers to tree-canopy level, eliminating the need for ladders and ground-based storage box handling. This dimensional change fundamentally repositions the harvesting operation from 2D ground movement to 3D spatial optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the picking station, storage boxes, and mobility functions into a single integrated mobile platform. Workers, storage boxes, and platform mechanisms are combined into one cohesive unit that moves continuously through the orchard, eliminating separate operations for ladder setup, box transport, and fruit collection.
2Ease of operation
If storage boxes are manually moved with tractors or forklifts, then full boxes can be transported, but additional labor and handling steps are required
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile picking platform performs its own box management functions. The platform autonomously positions, deploys, and collects storage boxes without external equipment. The integrated design allows the platform to service itself, eliminating the need for separate tractors, forklifts, or additional handling equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile platform serves multiple functions: it provides elevated working surfaces, transports storage boxes, positions picking stations, and facilitates fruit collection. This multi-functional design replaces multiple specialized equipment (ladders, storage box carriers, tractors) with a single universal platform.
3Reliability
If pickers walk through wet and muddy terrain carrying ladders and bags, then fruit harvesting can continue, but safety risks increase due to slipping and falling
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts workers from the hazardous ground-level environment and relocates them to the safe elevated platform. By removing workers from direct contact with wet and muddy terrain, the primary slipping and falling hazards are eliminated. The platform acts as a protective barrier between workers and harmful environmental conditions.
4Quantity of substance
If multiple storage boxes are shuttled back and forth, then fruit collection capacity increases, but handling complexity and potential fruit damage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile platform pre-positions multiple storage boxes at elevated picking stations before harvest begins. Boxes are deployed in advance at optimal locations along the platform, eliminating the need for repeated shuttling during harvest. This preliminary arrangement of boxes streamlines the harvesting workflow and reduces handling operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A mobile picking platform system includes a mobile picking platform having a mobile carriage with a superstructure supporting multiple adjustable picking stations. A storage box carrier on the mobile picking platform has a pick position with storage boxes held at optimum heights for access by pickers on the picking stations, an unload position in which full storage boxes are unloaded onto a ground surface, and a load position for receiving empty storage boxes. A storage unit carries empty storage boxes and facilitates transfer of storage boxes to the mobile picking platform. A shuttle trailer may also be included in the system to transfer empty storage boxes to the mobile picking platform and storage unit. The shuttle trailer has a down positon in which full storage boxes may be picked up from a ground surface, and an up position for transferring storage boxes to the storage unit or mobile picking platform.