Development of a vehicle to automatically load, transport and store the product of a blackberry crop

Abstract

Harvesting the blackberry crop is a delicate process because it must be carried out in the first hours of the day in shallow containers and without overhandling to prevent deterioration of the fruit and its fermentation. In this work a prototype of an automated vehicle is developed to improve the harvesting process of the crop reducing the time without affecting the quality of the blackberry. CAD tools were used to design the structure of the prototype and Arduino boards were used for its control, while communication between the vehicle and the monitoring station was established with Xbee devices. The vehicle moves carrying the harvest product in baskets between the collection points and the warehouse. Automated loading and unloading systems eliminate double handling of the products and require less human intervention. Hence, the implementation of the vehicle for loading, transporting, and unloading the product of the blackberry harvest generates savings in production costs and improves collection times since workers will be able to focus on the selection, harvesting and classification process.