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2015 Spring Meeting Florida Blueberry Growers’ Association
CURRENT USDA BLUEBERRY RESEARCH:
* SEASONAL SHADING OF BLUEBERRY PLANTS * MECHANICAL AND HARVEST-AID SYSTEMS FOR FRESH-
MARKET PACK-OUT BLUEBRRY* BLUEBERRY PACKING LINE EVALUATION
Fumiomi TakedaUSDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research StationKearneysville, WV 25430
Bartow, FLFeb. 2013
Seasonal, Retractable Shading System for Blueberries in the Southeast
• Cooler plant temperature/Substitute for HC?• Advance bloom, Improve fruit set• Reduce frost damage, Bird predation?• Increase U-Pick customer satisfaction
Scale-Neutral Harvest-Aid System and Sensor Technologies to Improve Harvest Efficiency and Handling of Fresh-Market Highbush Blueberries Project Overview
USDA NIFA competitive grant: Specialty Crop Research Initiative ($2.37 million) 14 PIs from 10 LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITIES and USDA-ARS Multi-state, comprehensive 4-year research/ extension project to develop semi-
mechanical harvesters and sensor technologies to take fresh market blueberry production to next level
3
Objectives 1. Develop high-throughput phenotyping, sensor technologies 2. Design a new semi-mechanical harvest-aid system for efficient
mechanical fruit harvesting for small- and medium-size blueberry farms and with fruit quality for fresh-market pack-out
3. Develop the next-generation berry impact recording sensor and use it to improve harvest and postharvest operations through a critical understanding of mechanical impacts
4
Objectives
4. Determine microbial contamination and criticalcontrol points along the harvest and
postharvest chain with the new harvesting system
5. Conduct economic and ergonomic analyses of new developed harvesting technologies
6. Outreach and technology transfer
HAND-HARVESTED MACHINE-HARVESTED
Hand-harvested blueberries
Fruit dropped from heights > 2 feet
Internal bruise detection using near infrared imaging system
9/27
Band ratio near infrared images (1075/1250 nm) of bruised blueberries (top row) and healthy blueberries (bottom row);
Bruised
• A SWRI hyperspectral imaging system will be used• PCA and minimum noise fraction transform will be used to enhance
features• Band ratio images will be used to enhance bruising feature• Linear Bayesian classifier for classification
Thermal imaging
• Pulsed-phase thermography• Thermal camera (T440, FLIR) 320 x 240• 10 s heat excitation • Frequency, amplitude, and phase delay will be analyzed by fast
Fourier transform using Matlab• Artificial bruising (pendulum); 24h and 48h after bruising
10/27
Bruised
Thermal image of one bruised (right) and one healthy (left) blueberries (Li, Unpublished work).
PACKING HOUSE EVALUATION
12/27
BIRD Sensor: Assembly
3 Accelerometers
Y
BIRD II
CUMULATIVE DROP HEIGHT = ~ 40 in.
Grading Line
SIZER
ELECTRONIC SORTER *
*
*
*
Fruit dropped once from 24-inch height onto padded surface
Fruit dropped 5 times from 6-inch height to hard surface
Objective 2
•Design a new semi-mechanical harvest-aid system for efficient mechanical fruit harvesting for small- and medium-size blueberry farms.
Goal: Machine harvest blueberries without bruising them!
18/27
1. Plant canopy manipulation; 2) Positioning of catcher plates
Alternative Harvester Design: Reduce how far berries drop
Catcher plate design
Padded catcher plate
Various padding products are being evaluated
Drop height (cm)
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Imp
act
(g
)
0
200
400
600
800
1000Plastic r2=0.99No Bruze r2=0.99
(a)?
Putting all the components together:
Multi-Row Harvesting Platform?
Improved fruit removal apparatus Catcher plates that minimize fruit bruising Ergonomic Higher capacity platform harvesting system
Thank you!
Questions?