P.E.R.C.H.

Introduction:
This page is dedicated to the project work for the senior design group the Picker Enhancement Rover for Careful Harvesting (P.E.R.C.H.).



Joe Rumble owns an orchard in Washington that has grades within the orchard of up to 20 degrees. He currently has each of the workers in the orchard pick the fruit by hand and place it in a bag hanging down the worker’s chest. The worker must move around with this bag and a ladder in order to navigate the trees in the orchard. This can be a dangerous endeavor because the bag can get up to 60 pounds before it is emptied into a bin. There are also time inefficiencies in this process because of the constant re-positioning of the ladder, and the worker emptying their bag every tree or less. The steep grades in the orchard prevent the current picking platforms to be a viable option. Although the picking will still have to be done by hand because of the delicacy of the fruit, a machine that will aid the workers in their picking, and eliminate the constant movement of an individual ladder is our goal. The current state of the picker working conditions has not been changed in nearly 100 years, and is need of a safer, more efficient option for sloped orchards.

Group Members

 * Spencer Marquis
 * Cole Lewis
 * Sydney Osterloh
 * Jordan Schwers

Problem Specifications
Design a machine that:
 * Allows 1-2 pickers to safely and effectively pick fruit or prune trees from heights 6’ to 13’ off the ground
 * Incorporates emergency safety features
 * Propels itself effectively and efficiently on terrain that has grades as high as 20 degrees (36% grade)
 * Provides for stationary picking/pruning and remain stable on grades ranging from 7-35%
 * Incorporates a mechanism or procedure to improve the ease and speed of transporting the fruit from the tree to the bin
 * Transports 4’x4’x30” bins of up to 1100 lbs and can leave full bins behind easily and efficiently
 * Overall improves fruit picking efficiency, safety and range when compared to a traditional ladder

Project Work
Research has been completed on fruit transport and bin filling systems. The best transport technology that was found was Whoosh Innovations gentle transport system.