Crop picking system
First Claim
1. A mechanical picker for use in collecting asparagus spears, including a picking assembly, and a picking assembly carriage, characterised in that Once the spear of asparagus has been selected to be picked, the picking assembly carriage continues to move forward with respect to the ground and the picking assembly moves backwards with respect to the picking assembly carriage so as to stay in a virtually static position during the picking operation with respect to the spear of asparagus that has been selected to be picked.
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Abstract
A mechanical picker for use in collecting asparagus spears, including a picking assembly, and a picking assembly carriage, characterised in that once the spear of asparagus has been selected to be picked, the picking assembly carriage continues to move forward with respect to the ground and the picking assembly moves backwards with respect to the picking assembly carriage so as to stay in a virtually static position during the picking operation with respect to the spear of asparagus that has been selected to be picked.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A mechanical picker for use in collecting asparagus spears, including
a picking assembly, and a picking assembly carriage, characterised in that Once the spear of asparagus has been selected to be picked, the picking assembly carriage continues to move forward with respect to the ground and the picking assembly moves backwards with respect to the picking assembly carriage so as to stay in a virtually static position during the picking operation with respect to the spear of asparagus that has been selected to be picked.
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11. A method of automatically picking asparagus spears by using a mechanical picker, which has a picking assembly carriage and a picking assembly, including
an asparagus spear minimum height determining assembly, and a horizontal position locating assembly, and an asparagus gripping assembly, and an asparagus severing assembly, characterised by the steps of a) moving the mechanical picker over a set of asparagus plants, and b) determining, by use of the minimum height determining assembly, when the mechanical picker is located above an asparagus spear with a height greater than the minimum height required, and c) ensuring the picking assembly stays virtually static with respect to the asparagus spear whilst the picking assembly carriage continues to move over the set of asparagus plants, and d) using the horizontal position locating assembly to locate the horizontal position of the asparagus spear with respect to the gripping and severing assemblies, and e) moving the asparagus gripping assembly and the asparagus severing assembly with respect to the asparagus spear until they are in their optimum position for gripping and severing the asparagus spear, and f) securing the asparagus spear in its'"'"' position by using the asparagus gripping assembly to grip the asparagus spear whilst the asparagus severing assembly severs the asparagus spear from the parent plant, and g) moving the picking assembly forward along the picking assembly carriage until it either aligns with another spear that is required to be picked or it returns to its primary position towards the front of the picking assembly carriage.
Specification