Detection identification and harvesting of mature coconut

Abstract

India is the third-largest coconut producer in the world with a production rate of 14 million coconuts per year. Coconut is mainly cultivated in southern Indian states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh since it is a coastal crop. Coconuts are harvested with maturity after twelve months are used for culinary and the tender coconuts harvested between seven and nine months are used as nutritious drink. Presently in India, there is a scarcity of professional climbers since coconut harvesting involves considerable risk posed by the height of the tree and uneven trunk surface. There are numerous coconut-tree-climbing devices developed and available in the market to overcome this issue. These devices require human effort for climbing, and the risk involved in manual harvesting exists. Hence, it is imperative to design and develop a coconut-tree-climbing device for harvesting without manpower requirement. A wheel-driven mechanism with continuous motion is proposed in this work to harvest coconuts without a human operator. 3D model of the proposed device was designed in SolidWorks using field measurements. Based on the 3D modeling, static and dynamic analysis results, the fabrication of the device has been carried out. The proposed coconut tree-climbing machine has an anti-falling capability to retain the tree climber stable in static and dynamic conditions. The harvester arm associated with the mainframe at one end consists of three links with a circular saw. The field trials of the climbing model were carried out on a coconut tree trunk with the height of 9m, and the circumference of 0.66m and the best climbing rate achieved during testing was 0.188m/s. newline