Evaluation of Shake-and-Catch Mechanism in Mechanical Harvesting of Apples

Abstract

Abstract. Damaged fruit is the most important barrier to success in the mechanical harvesting of fresh market apples using mass harvesting methods. To address fruit quality issues and expedite the commercialization of mechanical harvesting of fresh market apples, an innovative air suspension-based catching (ASC) mechanism was designed and fabricated to collect fruit detached with a mechanical shaking device (tree limb shaker). The objective of this study was to evaluate the shake-and-catch mechanism in mechanical harvesting of apples. Three apple varieties with different physical characteristics (‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Pacific Rose’, and ‘Pink Lady’) were used in the field trials. The air pressure settings for the ASC mechanism played an important role in reducing the risk of apple damage and improving fruit quality. The effect of the shaking frequency of the tree limb shaker on fruit quality was not significant. When the air pressure increased from 0 to 1030 kPa, the fruit quality greatly improved. Keywords: Air pressure, Air suspension-based catching mechanism, Fluidized bed technology, Fresh market apples, Fruit quality, Mass harvesting, Shaking efficiency.