Machinery-Canopy Interactions in Tree Fruit Crops

Abstract

AbstractLabor shortage has been and will continue to be one of the greatest challenges faced by agricultural industry worldwide. This issue is specifically concerning in specialty crop production, which often needs massive workforce during a short period of the growing season such as fruit harvesting and crop thinning. To address this issue, tree fruit industry is moving toward developing and adopting more mechanized and automated technologies for all kinds of field operations. However, despite all the efforts, the progress in commercially adopting mechanical or automated solutions in tree fruit crops has been slow, mainly because of the complex crop structures. Therefore, the utilization of machine-friendly tree architectures could be one of the critical ways to facilitate further advancement and adoption of automated solutions in tree fruit production. This chapter provides a unique perspective on a critical aspect of automation and robotics in agricultural fields: interaction and integration of machinery-canopy systems into developing a systems solution for agricultural robotics. The role of tree fruit crop architectures in orchard mechanization has been reviewed by comparing conventional and modern SNAP (i.e., simple, narrow, accessible, and productive) tree architectures such as a fruiting-wall system. Evidently, SNAP tree architecture minimizes the complexity of crop canopies, which can facilitate machine operations in orchards. In addition, to enable farmers to perform time-sensitive, site-specific operations precisely, various tools and technologies are essential to provide decision support based on both spatial and temporal crop variabilities. This chapter, therefore, also reviews some of the critical technologies in relation to machine-canopy interaction, such as various sensing technologies and machine/deep learning that can help us better understand interactions between machineries and crops and help us make better farming decisions in timely manner. Finally, three different case studies have been discussed in this chapter that provide specific suggestions and examples of machinery-canopy interaction and integration, thus reinforcing the understanding of the proposed concept.KeywordsMachine-friendly architectureFruiting-wall systemOrchard mechanization and automationInformation technology