Harvesters – Motorized harvester – Including driven air-blower unit
Patent
1994-01-04
1995-12-05
Bagnell, David J.
Harvesters
Motorized harvester
Including driven air-blower unit
563271, A01D 4500, A01D 4624
Patent
active
054718279
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
Device for the automatic selective harvesting of mushrooms grown on growing beds, comprising: a carrier which is movable above a growing bed relative thereto, and is provided with picking means for picking the mushrooms; at least one camera for observing the mushrooms on the growing bed; positioning means for positioning the picking means on the basis of information coming from each camera; the picking means comprising one or more picking heads each having a suction element provided with an opening which can be connected to a controllable source of reduced pressure for fixing by suction the cap of a mushroom against the suction element, each suction element being rotatable through a certain angle for detaching the mushroom held by suction on the suction element from the growing bed.
Nowadays mushrooms are largely grown on elongated growing beds, with a number of growing beds being disposed one above the other in racks with a small space between them, in order to utilize the growing space as efficiently as possible, and to minimize the floor area required for the cultivation. On the other hand, mushrooms may be cultivated in boxes.
Many operations necessary for cultivating mushrooms have already been mechanized with the passage of time, and can consequently be performed more economically than before. For the harvesting of mushrooms, in particular mushrooms for fresh consumption, developments with a view to the mechanization of picking have also been carried out, different devices having been proposed. These devices may be movable above a stationary growing bed, or the growing bed may be moved relative to a stationary device.
A mushroom harvesting device is known from Dutch Patent Application 86/00887. This publication describes a picking device with one or more picking heads which, with the aid of the information obtained by the cameras, are positioned above the center of the mushrooms to be picked. A sensor then measures the distance between the underside of the picking head and the upper side of a mushroom, following which the picking head is lowered over approximately this distance and air is pumped into an inflatable edge around a picking opening of a picking head. The picking head thereby comes into contact with the upper side of the cap of the mushroom, which can be harvested after its cap is fixed by suction to the picking head and the picking head with the mushroom fixed to it is rotated about a vertical axis through a certain angle.
Such a device has a number of disadvantages.
In the first place, the picking head of the known picking device fitted on the carrier can be moved only in the vertical direction and rotated about a vertical axis. The means for moving the picking head in a plane parallel to the surface of the growing bed comprise only the carrier which can generally be moved only along a straight line, with the result that a large number of picking heads must be used in order to cover the whole growing bed. Nevertheless, in the worst case it is only possible to pick with one picking head at a time, namely when only one picking head can be positioned by a suitable movement of the carrier above a mushroom to be harvested. The other picking heads are not effective in this case. The picking capacity of such a device will consequently generally fail relative to manual picking. The large number of picking heads required for a reasonable harvesting result also makes the device and the control thereof complex and expensive.
Secondly, the lower edge of the picking head always lies in the horizontal plane, with the result that with the known device caps of mushrooms standing obliquely often cannot be fixed by. suction well, if at all, to the picking head, or there is a risk of the mushrooms being damaged during picking, the cap of the mushroom breaking off its stalk, or the stalk being forced through the cap by the pressure exerted by the inflatable edge around the picking opening of a picking head. In this situation problems are encountered further in twisting mushrooms fixed on the picking head lo
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Giebels Marc M. J. L.
Janssen Joseph J. J.
van Nunen Josephus J. H.
Bagnell David J.
CCM Beheer B.V.
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