ISHS Acta Horticulturae 824: International Symposium on Application of Precision Agriculture for Fruits and Vegetables
DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW LOAD-CELL YIELD MONITOR FOR CITRUS |
| Authors: | J.M. Maja, R. Ehsani |
| Keywords: | load cell, instrumentation, precision agriculture, yield monitor, citrus harvesting |
| Abstract:
At present there is no yield monitoring system commercially available for citrus mechanical harvesters such as canopy shakers and catch-harvesting systems. The need to build a yield monitoring system for these machines is very important for the citrus growers. A yield monitoring system, that uses a load cell attached to each end of a plate was mounted at the end of the conveyor system of a shaker machine, was developed. An experimental setup was created to simulate the citrus flow during harvesting in the field. A plate made of a carbon fiber was used to measure the force created by rolling/falling oranges on the conveyor. The system was designed to be easily retrofitted to the shaker machine in the field. This paper describes the develop¬ment of the yield monitoring system and its data acquisition, as well as the results of the experiment. | |
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