To help make picking lighter work, the University of Waikato has developed an electronic fruit bin that assists in the harvesting of kiwifruit.
The University’s School of Engineering lecturer Nick Pickering said the challenge is to use automation technology to invent something that will assist kiwifruit pickers on orchards and open up jobs to a wider group of people.
“The industry is suffering serious labour shortages especially during harvest, so we’ve come up with this solution that can enable more people to do the job of picking kiwifruit.”
The e-Bin takes the hard work out of picking the fruit.
Instead of each individual having to carry around a bag, a group of four pickers walk alongside the e-Bin, which is on wheels. As each kiwifruit is picked, it is dropped into a fruit catcher on the e-Bin. A net cushions and secures the fruit before it rolls down and comes to rest in the main bin.
The e-Bin human assisted harvesting project has been a collaboration with Zespri, the project sponsor. It has also involved students and academics from the School of Engineering and industry experts.
Zespri orchard technology innovation lead Peter McHannigan said there’s potential to solve many issues with assisted robotics, but they must make commercial sense.
“Through this project we are looking at the total financial cost-benefit assessment.”
The results are promising in terms of the e-Bin’s ability to reduce fatigue and safely operate in an orchard environment.
The e-Bin is one of the university’s three innovations offering high-tech solutions to the horticultural industry entered in the Fieldays Innovation Awards Prototype category, and on show in the Fieldays Innovation Hub.
The University of Waikato’s other innovations are Modular Agritech Systems for Horticulture (MAS-H) and Decision Support Tools.
