Automatic plant selector
First Claim
1. An automatic plant selector apparatus having:
- a scaffold, a primary nursery tray holder for holding at least one primary nursery tray, wherein the primary nursery tray holder is movably coupled to a primary side of the scaffold, a secondary nursery tray holder for holding at least one secondary nursery tray, wherein the secondary nursery tray holder is movably coupled to a secondary side of the scaffold, a primary plant removal mechanism moveably coupled to the scaffold for removing plants from the at least one primary nursery tray, and a secondary plant removal mechanism moveably coupled to the scaffold for removing plants from the at least one secondary nursery tray when a plant is not available to the primary plant removal mechanism.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention relates to a system and method for automatically selecting viable seedlings or plants from a nursery tray for transplant into a field by an automatic transplant device. An automatic plant selector according to the present invention functions as an attachment to an automatic transplant device such as a rotary cup transplant machine. The plant selector eliminates the requirement of human labor while significantly reducing the percentage of non-viable or “blank” transplants when using an automatic transplant device to plant seedlings. This reduction is accomplished through use of primary and secondary nursery trays that are addressed by primary and secondary plant removal devices, or “plant pullers,” respectively, which automatically provide viable seedlings to the automatic transplant device. The plant selector moves these nursery trays in horizontal and vertical increments that allow each cell in each tray to become available in turn to either the primary or secondary plant puller. The secondary plant puller is used to provide a viable seedling from the secondary nursery tray when a plant sensor indicates that the primary plant puller is unable to provide a viable seedling from the primary nursery tray.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. An automatic plant selector apparatus having:
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a scaffold, a primary nursery tray holder for holding at least one primary nursery tray, wherein the primary nursery tray holder is movably coupled to a primary side of the scaffold, a secondary nursery tray holder for holding at least one secondary nursery tray, wherein the secondary nursery tray holder is movably coupled to a secondary side of the scaffold, a primary plant removal mechanism moveably coupled to the scaffold for removing plants from the at least one primary nursery tray, and a secondary plant removal mechanism moveably coupled to the scaffold for removing plants from the at least one secondary nursery tray when a plant is not available to the primary plant removal mechanism. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An automatic plant selector apparatus for reducing the selection of non-viable seedlings comprising:
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at least two nursery tray holders, each holding at least one nursery tray, movably coupled to a scaffold;
at least two plant removal devices movably coupled to the scaffold, wherein each plant removal device is associated with a separate nursery tray holder; and
wherein at least one subsequent nursery tray holder is addressed by the plant removal device associated with the subsequent nursery tray holder when the plant selector apparatus is unable to remove a viable seedling from at least one prior nursery tray. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification